The Moto3 pole position at the Sachsenring goes to a Dutchman! Collin Veijer beats World Championship rival and leader David Alonso at the last moment thanks to a new record lap. Rookie Luca Lunetta impresses with a strong third place ahead of Adrian Fernandez and Jose Antonio Rueda. Daniel Holgado does not get past 13th place. The Swiss Noah Dettwiler fails in Q1 and starts the German Grand Prix from 26th place.
This is how Q1 of Moto3 went:
For world championship contender Daniel Holgado, qualifying Saturday in Moto3 started anything but ideally, as he missed out on direct entry into Q2 after a fall in the second practice session. He therefore started in Q1 and lived up to his role as favorite. The Tech3 rider led the session for a long time and confidently moved into Q2 in second place as one of the last four riders.
The best time in Q1 was secured shortly before the end by Aspar driver Joel Esteban, who was 0.075 seconds faster than Holgado in 1:26.325 minutes. The last two places for Q2 were secured by Matteo Bertelle and Scott Ogden. Xabi Zurutuza, however, failed to make it to fifth place by just under a hundredth of a second and thus had to settle for 19th place on the grid. The Swiss driver Noah Dettwiler did not manage to get past 12th and last place in Q1 at the Sachsenring, which is equivalent to starting position 26.
This was Q2 of the Moto3 at the Sachsenring:
Leopard driver Adrian Fernandez had set a new lap record in the second practice session in the morning and was back in the lead a few hours later at the start of Q2. He immediately took the lead, but was soon displaced by Collin Veijer and David Alonso. Jose Antonio Rueda took fourth place ahead of Tatsuki Suzuki. With this interim result, these drivers then went into the pit stop.
Luca Lunetta, meanwhile, took a different approach and only took to the track a few minutes after the session had started. While the rest of the field was in the garage, he shot up to third place in the slipstream of the MT Helmets riders.
With just under five minutes to go, the Moto3 stars’ final runs began one after the other. Alonso briefly shot back to the front, but Veijer had the last word. After the time had run out, the Dutchman burned a new lap record of 1:24.885 minutes into the asphalt, securing pole position.
Alonso is beaten by almost three tenths and is in second place ahead of Lunetta. Behind him are Fernandez, Jose Antonio Rueda and David Munoz on the second row. Ivan Ortola can’t get past 12th place, and Holgado is only 13th.
Falls and incidents:
Nicola Carraro was responsible for the first crash of qualifying. The Italian slipped harmlessly over the front in turn one.
Shortly before the end of Q2, Matteo Bertelle was also hit in turn 12.