British Moto2: Acosta unstoppable for wet Silverstone pole

Pedro Acosta lowered his own best as his rivals struggled to stay on board in qualifying for the British Moto2 Grand Prix at Silverstone.

Lisa Lewis

05 Aug 2023

Pedro Acosta, Moto2, British MotoGP, 5 August

Pedro Acosta had a handle on the tricky, changable, wet conditions as well as his rivals as he powered through the rain for pole ahead of the British Grand Prix at Silverstone, round nine of the championship.

Track conditions more than played their part with sections of the track wetter than others and rain falling in some turns and other parts drying.

It was Jake Dixon who first stamped his mark on the session, with Acosta building into his run as he did in the soaked FP3 earlier in the day.

As the track got faster the Red Bull KTM Ajo rider came into his own, dropping his own best as the three riders who ruled in the wet - Acosta with Fermin Aldeguer and Zonta van den Goorbergh duelled it out to the flag.

The #37 pulled out an impressive 2m16.953s to close out the session in style.

Aldeguer briefly lead for Beta Tools Speed Up, but saw his last lap cancelled for exceeding track limits when looking set for pole, leaving the Spaniard 0.700s behid his fellow countryman.

Surprise front row for Zonta van den Goorbergh.

Zonta Van Den Goorbergh, Moto2, British MotoGP, 5 August

After moving through Q1 Zonta van den Goorbergh had gotten to grips with the conditions and carried that form into Q2.

Immediatley back at the sharp end the Dutch rider was in with a shout of pole, briefly standing at the top of the timing screens and improving on his final run for a first ever front row start with Fieten Olie Racing GP.

It eclipses the seventeen year old’s previous best of fourteenth on the grid.

Arbolino bounces back for fourth

Championship leader Tony Arbolino as off the pace in the dry on Friday and was knocked out of the automatic Q2 places.

Second in the wet FP3, he also won in the only real wet race this season, the Argentina round, and having to come through Q1 was a further asset, with even more track time in the rain under his belt.

That first qualifying session did end with him on top but was not without incident as he also crashed out, a spill at Vale.

The #14 cut a frustrated figure ahead of Q2, seemingly upset that something was missing or awry in his pit box.

Undeterred, Arbolino fought back. Fourteenth until the final two minutes he jumped up to third, slipping to fourth by the time the clock hit zero to complete a strong recovery performance.

Alonso Lopez spent much of his time behind his Boscoscuo teammate, Aldeguer. On pole at the last round before the summer break in Assen, the #21 will line up fifth.

Fastest on Friday in the dry, Aron Canet was almost as competitive in the wet, but not quite, leaving the Pons Wegow Los 40 rider to pick up sixth to complete row two.

Sergio Garcia was the best of the rookies in seventh behind his teammate.

Barry Baltus made the most of moving to Q2 with a performance good enough for eighth place on the second Fieten OLie racing bike, completing a strong Saturday for the team.

Sam Lowes was the best of the Brits, starting his final home Moto2 race at Silverstone from ninth for Elf Marc VDS.

Joe Roberts claimed a top ten start for Italtrans.

Qualifying ends in disaster for Dixon.

Assen winner Jake Dixon was on top in the wet FP3 in the morning despite a late fall, so was well prepared and able to fight hard in the treacherous conditions.

He immediately showed he had what it takes for pole, but had competition from the front row trio, with his opening fast banker lap dropping to fifth, there was red sectors across the first three parts of the track on his second run aboard the Tensite GasGas bike.

The Aspar rider was all set to take over at the top again and looking to the finish line when he was unceremoniously shot off his Kalex sideways after doing enough to stop the typical highside which was suffered by many.

Shooting off into the gravel the man from Dover landed hard on his right hip, and was powerless to do anything to stop his fall down the order.

He finally finished eleveth ahead of his home round instead of the pole he dreamed of and was more than capable of getting.

Albert Arenas did not set a time after being the first to fall in the session on his flying lap, near Becketts.

What happened in Q1?

Tony Arbolino lived up to expectations leading the way with Barry Baltus, Zonta van den Goorbergh nd Darryn Binder (14th) joining him, the latter putting in an electric run where he passed both Bo Bendsneyder and Taiga Hader to move up to fourth.

That ran Jeremy Alcoba and Izan Guevara out of contention, both pulling out personal bests on their final trips of Silverstone but not able to compete with Binder’s best. They start from 19th and 20th respectively.

Rory Skinner was in the mix to move on but then got swamped by faster times as the session progressed, leaving the rookie 21st for his first home Moto2 race.