Misano, Italy – 11 September 2015:  Reigning Moto2 World Champion Tito Rabat powered his Team Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS Kalex machine to a record-breaking pace on Misano’s impressively grippy and smooth new asphalt this afternoon.

Rabat, who led home a Marc VDS 1-2 in last year’s Misano clash, set the fastest ever Moto2 lap of the 2.626 miles track with a blistering pace of 1.37.457 that was over 0.2s inside Pol Espargaro’s two-year-old pole record.

Rabat took full advantage of the vastly improved surface at the Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli, which not only offers better grip levels, but the changes have also eradicated some of the notoriously bumpy sections at the San Marino venue.

Rabat improved by 0.6s compared to his FP1 pace and topped the timesheets by 0.158s ahead of Dominique Aegerter.

A small technical issue cost Alex Marquez precious time on track in FP1, but a trouble free second session allowed the Spaniard to quickly make up for lost time, as he improved by almost a second this afternoon.

The 19-year-old, who has finished on the Moto3 podium in Misano in 2013 and 2014, climbed up the rankings from 22nd to 13th.

Tito Rabat: 1st – 1’37.457
“Today has been very good and I have to say I really like this track. I immediately had a good feeling on the bike with the tyres but as always we have to remember it is only Friday. It seems they did a very good job with the new surface because the track is very smooth and also has good grip. The focus tomorrow morning will be to try and improve my race pace so that I can try and fight for the win again here on Sunday.”

Alex Marquez: 13th – 1’38.235
“We didn’t have good luck in FP1 with the small electrical problem but it can happen. My crew did a fantastic job in finding the problem quickly and then solving it, so we didn’t lose too much time on track. In FP2 I improved a lot with every exit but right now I don’t think I’m in the best situation to push to the limit on new tyres. With more laps and a bit more feeling in the braking zone I think we can be closer.”

Michael Bartholemy: Team Principal
“Tito was impressive throughout today and I am very happy with the job he did. He was very consistent and we knew he could do a great job this afternoon because this morning he was the only one to use the hard front tyre. He was then able to show his real potential this afternoon and he did a few laps inside the old record, which is impressive. Alex didn’t have an easy start with the technical problem but he did a great job to recover and finished only 0.7s behind Tito. So I’m sure with more time tomorrow he can reduce the gap further.”