Moto3 Championship leader Albert Arenas has ended the opening day of action on top ahead of Jeremy Alcoba and Tatsuki Suzuki.

Arenas’ 1:47.987 came at the end of the session as he stormed 0.2s clear of the chasing riders of Alcoba and a further tenth clear of Tatsuki Suzuki.

The longer Moto3 sessions proved to be beneficial for the lower-class riders as one second covered the top 17. Raul Fernandez wrapped up the day in fourth place ahead of Leopard duo, Jaume Masia and Dennis Foggia.

Deniz Öncü led championship contenders Tony Arbolino and Ai Ogura with Stefano Nepa, who became the first Grand Prix rider to slip off in this morning’s free practice one session.

Romano Fenati, who also joined Nepa on the Portuguese runoff, finished the day in 11th place, +0.710s off. A last-ditch effort from John McPhee saw the Scot leap into the top 14, finishing 12th ahead of Jason Dupasquier and Sergio Garcia.

Davide Pizzoli was the first rider to miss out on a Q2 spot, trailing Garcia by just +0.035s – resulting in his one of his best Friday’s of the season. The Italian was ahead of Alonso Lopez, Aymumu Sasaki, Niccolò Antonelli and Kaito Toba who will all be aiming for a place in Q2 during Saturday morning’s 40-minute free practice three.

Celestino Vietti and Andrea Migno both find themselves outside of the top 20. Vietti leads his team-mate in 24th and 25th positions. Another surprise comes from Darryn Binder. The South African lies in 27th place behind Raul Fernandez’s younger brother, Adrian, who is deputizing for Filip Salac as he makes his Grand Prix debut.

Moto3 returns to the Algarve on Saturday morning as free practice three gets underway at 09:00.

Featured image: MotoGP.com