Del Conca Gresini’s Jorge Martin has bagged his 11th Moto3 pole position at Jerez this lunchtime and is now only two shy of Alex Rins’ absolute record of tiddler class poles while title rival Aron Canet will start from the outside of the fifth row.
Martin put in a 1’46.193 on his 11th lap of 14 to snatch top spot and he was never toppled despite effort from Philipp Oettl in second and team-mate Fabio Digiannantonio in third, who was four-tenths off the pace.
There was plenty of cat and mouse action going on throughout the session, with Martin initially coming back into the pits to escape the melee of riders. The Spaniard didn’t have it all his own way during the session though, with Oettl setting a scorching pace to go 0.531 seconds clear of the rest with 20 minutes left on the clock. However, with just over 10 minutes to go, Martin pounced – setting a 1'46.193 to go 0.153 seconds clear of the German.
“It has been a difficult weekend, both due to weather and track conditions. We worked hard with the team to find back the feeling we had during winter testing and it wasn’t easy," said Martin.
"Obviously I’m very happy with this eleventh-career pole, but tomorrow it won’t be easy: it’ll be important to do well in warm up already, as we lack some grip at the rear end and we must find it in order to be competitive.”
Niccolo Antonelli (SIC58 Squadra Corse), meanwhile, was up at the sharp end again in qualifying, he’ll spearhead the second row in P4. His compatriot Marco Bezzecchi (Redox PruestelGP) continues his great start to 2018 in fifth, with Angel Nieto Team Moto3 rider Andrea Migno making it an all-Italian second row in P6.
The fastest rookie in Jerez qualifying was Alonso Lopez (Estrella Galicia 0,0), with P7 his best grid position so far this year and his previous form at the venue in the Moto3 Junior World Championship coming to the fore. Enea Bastianini (Leopard Racing) lines up eighth for Sunday’s race, with teammate Lorenzo Dalla Porta rounding out the third row. Tatsuki Suzuki (SIC58 Squadra Corse) was the leading Japanese rider in P10, with fellow countryman Kaito Toba (Honda Team Asia) a solid 11th and SKY Racing Team VR46 rookie Dennis Foggia in 12th.
Makar Yurchenko (CIP – Green Power), despite a late crash, was able to qualify P13 after a good afternoon’s work for the rookie and some much improved form this weekend, with reiging Red Bull Rookies MotoGP Cup Champion Kazuki Masaki (RBA BOE Skull Rider) a slender 0.002 back in P14.
Britain’s John McPhee was riding high with ten minutes to go but didn’t find any extra pace as the clock ticked down and the CIP KTM man starts from 17th.
Red Bull KTM’s Darryn Binder will not take part in any further action after dislocating his shoulder in a crash.
