Moto3 Brno: Kornfeil storms to first ever pole on home soil
Full Moto3 qualifying results from Brno
Jakub Kornfeil timed his final lap to perfection to secure a career first pole on the eve of his 155th race start on home soil in qualifying for the Czech Moto3 Grand Prix at Brno.
The Redox PruestelGP rider pulled out of the pits just in time for one final dash after the chequered flag waved, as most of the field suddenly realised they’d timed their final runs poorly and missed out, including all of the then top nine.
Latching on to the back of John McPhee, who was the second rider to make it over the line in time and with strong pace, paid dividends as he grabbed pole at home aboard his KTM from being outside the top ten before the final run drama with a lap of 2m 07.981s.
McPhee climbed up to second - 0.419s behind- after pulling Kornfeil along with him and will have high hopes of a good performance with his CIP - Green Power team at the scene of only win, back in 2016.
Third went to Marcos Ramirez who crossed the line in the same group, completing the all KTM front row with Bester Capital Dubai.
Philipp Oettl was also present for the final run, and moved up to fourth for Sudmetal Schedl GP racing.
Gresini’s Fabio Di Giannantonio was on provisional pole when all the bikes were sat in pit lane awaiting that final lunge for the best time, with all eyes and cameras on him he remained sat in his pits until it was far too late to get around in time for a flying lap, leaving him unable to do anything to prevent his tumble down the timesheets to fifth. He remained the top Honda rider.
Aron Canet found himself in the same situation, leaving him sixth for Estrella Galicia, with last years pole man Gabriel Rodrigo also failing to make it round in time, dropping him to seventh for RBA.
Honda Team Asia rider Nakarin Atiratphuvapat took advantage of the situation to climb to eighth, as did Nico Antonelli, shaking of the memory of his Friday fall to claim ninth with SIC58 Squadra Corse.
Leopard’s Enea Bastianini held on to the final spot inside the top ten.
Behind him on the timesheets the battle to be top rookie played out with Jaume Masia (Bester Capital Dubai) getting the better of rival Kazuki Masaki (RBA) to claim eleventh.
With Jorge Martin out of this race and possibly the next after fracturing his left hand in FP1 Marcos Bezzecchi has been presented with the perfect opportunity to take back the championship lead. Unfortunately for the Italian he has found Brno difficult, but looked to be getting to grips with the track at the right time and was provisionally eighth before he too failed to get around in time for a last run, leaving the Redox PruestelGP rider 14th while his team-mate took pole.
The addition of Filip Salac (Cuna de Campeones Czech Talent) as a wild-card adds another Czech rider to the roster for the Brno round, the 16-year-old impressed in final practice and but didn’t carry his performance into qualifying, starting 26th.
Illustrating how important that final lap chance was Alonso Lopez made it around and crossed the line in seventh before having his time cancelled, dropping him all the way back to 25th.
Ayumu Sasaki was the first faller, his highside exiting turn five saw him taken to the medical centre for a check-up and declared fit in the closing minutes of the session.
He was swiftly followed into the gravel by fellow Japanese rider Tatsuki Suzuki after his turn one spill.
After making it round in time for a final dash Albert Arenas blew his final chance to improve by also coming off at turn one in the closing moments of the session, leaving him to line up 15th for the race on Sunday.
