Indianapolis, United States – 7 August 2015: Team Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS rider Tito Rabat made a sensational return to Moto2 World Championship action at the legendary Indianapolis Motor Speedway in America today.

The three-week summer break gave the reigning World Champion the perfect opportunity to fully recover from the broken right collarbone he suffered prior to the last round in Germany.

And a 100% fighting fit Rabat demonstrated blistering speed at the 2.591 miles Brickyard venue to top the timesheets by a massive 0.328s in a second practice session run in gloriously sunny and cloudless conditions.

Rabat’s 1.36.967 was the only sub-1.37 lap of the opening day and was less than 0.1s away from beating Mika Kallio’s 2014 pole record of 1.36.883.

A small crash at the second corner in FP1 didn’t have an adverse impact on Alex Marquez, who finished 16th on the combined leaderboard with a quickest pace of 1.38.2015.

The 19-year-old has identified braking and corner speed as key areas he needs to improve to help him try and break into the top 10 for tomorrow’s 45-minute qualifying session.

Tito Rabat: 1st – 1’36.967
“The bike is working very well and I enjoyed riding a lot today, despite the pretty big moment I had coming out of turn nine in FP1! We have to keep working in this good way because we can’t forget it is only Friday and our rivals will improve and be stronger. My shoulder feels really strong and with my good feeling on the bike today I am confident we can be really competitive in the second half of the season.”

Alex Marquez: 16th – 1’38.205
“This afternoon I expected a little more but we had a problem with one tyre and we need to analyse what happened. It was still a positive day but I need to do a step more with my riding style to find the limit. I need to improve in the braking area and carry better corner speed and then we can understand more clearly the problems from the bike. The bike feels good, so the bigger improvements need to come from me.”

Pete Benson: Chief Mechanic, Tito Rabat
“We are happy with Tito’s performance today. We have made a few tweaks to the bike based on the experience we gained in the first half of the season and hopefully that will help us pose a strong challenge for the remainder of the year. I have no doubt that with a bit of luck, and if we can avoid being caught up in incidents beyond our control, he can a big threat. The gap to Zarco in the standings is big but we’ll keep fighting right to the end.”