Moto3: Fernandez secures Teruel pole, McPhee 17th

Qualifying for the 12th round of the 2020 Moto3 World Championship took place at MotorLand Aragon for the Grand Prix of Teruel, the second race in MotorLand in one week. Albert Arenas, the World Championship leader, entered qualifying as the fastest rider across the three free practice sessions.

In Q1, it was Filip Salac who was the fastest rider, the Czech topping the session ahead of Stefano Nepa, Kaito Toba and Gabriel Rodrigo. Those four moved through to Q2 to battle it out for the front six rows. 

Q2 saw yet another pole position from Raul Fernandez who dominated the session, able to get close to the 1’56s without a tow. The #25 is turning into something of a Jorge Martin replica in the Moto3 World Championship, the 2018 World Champion famous for his performances on Saturday afternoons which Fernandez has seemed capable of mirroring in 2020. 

Joining the Spaniard on the front row are two championship-contending Italians, Tony Arbolino and Celestino Vietti who will be hoping for good starts tomorrow to stop Fernandez from breaking away. 

On the second row, Gabriel Rodrigo was able to qualify fourth despite having to pass through Q1 and will be joined by Albert Arenas and Ayumu Sasaki after a strong last lap from the #71 fired him onto row two. With three of the six major championship contenders populating the front two rows, there are exciting prospects for tomorrow’s race. 

Adding to that, Jaume Masia will start from the front of the third row in seventh place. After the #5’s comeback from 17th to win last weekend he can certainly not be discounted for the Grand Prix of Teruel. The Spaniard will be joined on row three by two Japanese riders: Kaito Toba and Tatsuki Suzuki, the #27 in a Honda sandwich in eighth place. 

Ai Ogura rounded out the top 10 in qualifying and will start from the front of the fourth row, having looked somewhat back to his old form this weekend after three difficult Grands Prix in Barcelona, France and Aragon. The #79 will start alongside Filip Salac and Dennis Foggia on the fourth row; while Romano Fenati heads up row five from Jeremy Alcoba and Darryn Binder.

Row six sees the last of the six championship contenders, John McPhee, sandwiched between two KTMs, those of Stefano Nepa (16th) and Deniz Oncu (18th). From there, McPhee will have a lot of work to do, but he showed last weekend that he is capable of recovering positions in Aragon after he was forced to take the long lap penalty for riding slowly in qualifying. Tomorrow, the #17 will need more of the same.

Niccolo Antonelli was the fastest rider to miss out on Q2, the Italian qualifying 19th ahead of Carlos Tatay and Alonso Lopez on the seventh row; while Yuki Kunii will head up row eight from Barry Baltus and Davide Pizzoli. Behind, Ryusei Yamanaka will start from the front of the ninth row, alongside Khairul Idham Pawi and Sergio Garcia; while the 10th row will see Maximilian Kofler start alongside Jason Dupasquier.