KUALA LUMPUR: Rookie Khairul Idham Pawi did well to top the Moto3 timesheets in a wet opening practice session at the Italian Motorcycle Grand Prix today.
The Honda Team Asia rider displayed the same ability to handle tricky track conditions as he did en route to winning the Argentina GP last month and clocked two minutes and 9.992 seconds on an overcast morning at Mugello.
Honda teammate Hiroki Ono (Japan) was second fastest on 2:10.001s while Italian Francesco Bagnaia (Aspar Mahindra) was third with 2:10.143s.
Fellow rookie Adam Norrodin (Drive M7 SIC Racing Team), who has crashed in three races this season, suffered another fall during the session and settled for 30th (2:15.427s).
Khairul, however, could not replicate his success in the second session as the track dried out with sunny weather replacing the clouds.
The Perak-born came in a distant 20th (2:00.247s) as Hiroki turned up the heat to top the session on 1:58.489s. Adam showed slight improvement, moving up to 28th with 2:00.607s.
In Moto2, Petronas Raceline's Hafizh Syahrin Abdullah could only manage 18th fastest in the first session on 1:55.807s but did well to notch fifth in the second on a much faster 1:53.069s.