Austrian Moto3: Fenati flies solo for pole position
Romano Fenati found the best lap of the track while once again riding around the Red Bull Ring alone to claim pole position for the Moto3 Austrian Grand Prix, round eleven of the championship.
The Sterilgarda Max Racing Team rider earned the fifth pole of his career with his determined routine of going it alone in qualifying. Pole came with a best lap of 1m 35.850s set near the end of the session. It is his first time in the top slot of the grid since he last gained pole back at the Silverstone round of 2017.
It marks a two place improvement from the Italian, who started third on the grid last week in Spielberg, which he translated to a podium finish.
Tatsuki Suzuki was the latest victim of some wild riding from Gabriel Rodrigo and was in provisional pole when he was collected by the Argentine rider. His time held firm as he spent most of the session in the medical centre and only dropped under Fenati, 0.071s slower.
The Japanese rider will be able to take his second place on the grid for SIC58 Squadra Corse after being declared fit at the end of the session.
Rodrigo finished the session eighth, but already has a pit lane start to his name for his earlier crash in FP3, which left Ryusei Yamanaka (CarXpert PruestelGP) declared unfit to ride after sustaining a fractured left humerus when hit by the Gresini rider.
The final front row slot went to his team-mate Jeremy Alcoba who left it to his last lap to move up from 17th in the session.
Jaume Masia ran with fellow Red Bull KTM Ajo rider rookie Pedro Acosta once again. This time the tactic worked out better for him than for his championship leading team-mate - Masia finished fourth. Acosta was initially doing the better of the two but ended Q2 in seventh, a dip in form after looking to have got a handle on qualifying after taking fourth in the same session last week, from where he went on to win the race.
Polesitter last weekend at the same track, Deniz Oncu survived an early trip wide and off track to come back and put in a strong final run. That saw him momentarily take third before being displaced by Alcoba and Masia at the chequered flag for Red Bull KTM Tech 3 for an eventual fifth.
Ayumu Sasaki recovered from his fall earlier in the day to claim a solid sixth on the second Red Bull KTM Tech 3 entry.
Dennis Foggia set the ninth best time for Leopard, with Stefano Nepa the best of the riders to graduate from Q1, taking a top ten start for BOE Owlride.
Rookie Izan Guevara, who came into qualifying quickest at Spielberg after topping FP3 with the best time set over the last two weekends at the track, was eleventh for Santander Consumer GasGas. His FP3 time remained just quicker than Fenati’s pole lap.
It was a tough day at the office for the Petronas Sprinta team. John McPhee was 15th quickest and the best of the duo.
Amid swirling rumours of where he may end up next season, Darryn Binder, who set the pace on Friday, was 18th and last in Q2.
The only Austrian rider in the paddock, Maximilian Kofler, finished Q1 in 10th for 24th on the grid ahead of his home grand prix.
David Salvador was unlucky not to get a run in Q2, he was pushed down to fifth in the first half of qualifying at the last second.
He fared much better than the more senior rider at Rivacold Snipers, Andrea Migno. Receiving several team communications to remind him that time was short, the Italian was never quite on the pace in the session. Twice he found himself leading around riders for them to gain a slipstream advantage at the end of the lap, including Riccardo Rossi who moved into Q2 with the top time and went on to qualify 12th. That Pushed Migno down to seventh in Q1 - which equates to 21st on the grid.
Niccolo Antonelli misses the race through injury (broken wrist) after his crash last weekend. He is replaced at Avintia by Elia Bartolini (26th).
Leopard’s Xavier Artigas remains absent following a positive Covid test and is self isolating.
