David Alonso takes the next pole position in Moto3! After his mistake in Jerez, he left no doubt at Le Mans as to who the man of the hour was in the smallest category of the motorcycle world championship. However, World Championship leader Dani Holgado is hot on his heels; on his fastest lap he is only 0.011 seconds slower than the Aspar driver. Jose Antonio Rueda is third followed by Adrian Fernandez, Collin Veijer and Ivan Ortola. Veijer’s best time would have been enough for P3, but was canceled due to yellow flags. The Dutchman starts from the middle of the second row. Completing the top ten are Joel Kelso, David Munoz, Angel Piqueras and Ryusei Yamanaka.
This is how the Moto3 qualifying went:
The following pilots competed in the first qualifying: Buasri, Farioli, Carraro, Roulstone, Bertelle, Ogden, Almansa, Suzuki, Dettwiler, Lunetta, Whatley, Nepa.
Jacob Roulstone and Luca Lunetta set the first fast laps. Farioli and Almansa also moved into the top four early on. Dettwiler finished the first time attack in eighth place.
A little later, Nicola Carraro improved his time and moved into the lead. Things are getting hot up front. The four fastest drivers are separated by just over two tenths.
New leader! Scott Ogden hits one and sets a time of 1:41.726 minutes. This means that Jacob Roulstone slips out of the Q2 places for the time being.
However, Jacob Roulstone doesn’t let this bother him. He sets the best time of the session and confidently moves into Q2. He is followed by Luca Lunetta, Scott Ogden and Tatsuki Suzuki. Matteo Bertelle and Nicola Carraro narrowly miss out on qualifying for Q2. Noah Dettwiler doesn’t get past P10 in Q1 and will therefore start the race from position 24.
And Q2 is already starting. Rueda, Alonso and Fernandez get started like the fire department and set times in the 40s. Behind them are Munoz, Ortola and Holgado.
Alonso increases his time and pushes past Rueda. But he is only lurking a little more than three hundredths of a second behind him.
Now Collin Veijer is also writing about the first 1940s. He is exactly 0.001 seconds faster than competitor Alonso. Holgado is now only ninth, although he only loses 0.271 seconds to Veijer.
Now the peak times are hailing here again. World Championship leader Holgado jumps to provisional pole position with one minute to go.
Alonso and Holgado are in a duel for pole, and both have significantly improved their times. In the end, David Alonso narrowly prevails! With 1:40.1114 minutes he sets the absolute best time and a new lap record. Dani Holgado narrowly failed, 0.011 seconds behind. Jose Antonio Rueda will start from P3 tomorrow.
Falls and incidents:
Halfway through the first qualifying session, Nicola Carraro crashed in turn three. But he was able to get the bike upright and bring it back to the pits.