Moto3: Rodrigo takes Barcelona pole, Acosta 25th

Qualifying for the Moto3 Catalan Grand Prix, round seven of the 2021 World Championship, took place at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya in decent and stable conditions. 

Prior to the weekend, Deniz Oncu put a call out on social media for the Moto3 riders to stop their waiting around for tows in practice and qualifying. Certainly, in practice it seemed that most riders had listened, and that carried on in Q1 as well, in which the top four were: John McPhee, Xavi Artigas, Jaume Masia and Riccardo Rossi. 

In Q2 the waiting resumed. Firstly, in pit lane, but by the end of the session is was another standard Moto3 battle for track position as everyone wanted to be not the rider at the front of the train. Barcelona has a long straight, so the slipstream is powerful, and it could be of benefit in other areas, too, like from the exit of turn three to turn four, or from turn nine to the newly re-profiled turn 10. 

It was Gabriel Rodrigo who made the most of the circumstances to take pole position, and Jeremy Alcoba completed a perfect 1-2 for the Gresini team. After Rodrigo’s podium last weekend, the team are certainly coming into a strong bit of form, but the unpredictability of the lightweight class means there is no telling at all whether this will carry into tomorrow’s race, in which the two will be joined by Niccolo Antonelli on the front row. 

Stefano Nepa surprised pretty much everyone in FP3 by topping the session. He surprised once more in qualifying, as he set the fourth-fastest time in Q2. On the second row tomorrow, he will be joined by Izan Guevara and John McPhee; while McPhee’s Petronas Honda teammate, Darryn Binder, will start from seventh alongside Tatsuki Suzuki and Jaume Masia on the third row. 

Riccardo Rossi rounded out the top 10 in Q2, and he will start from the front of the fourth row, alongside Romano Fenati – one of the few riders to set their lap time alone – and Deniz Oncu. 

On row five, Kaito Toba will be 13th, ahead of Ayumu Sasaki and Adrian Fernandez; while last week’s winner, Dennis Foggia, will head up row six from Filip Salac and the second Leopard Honda of Xavi Artigas. 

Sergio Garcia was the fastest rider to miss out on Q2, finishing Q1 in fifth. The Le Mans winner will therefore start from 19th on the grid tomorrow, alongside the returning Yuki Kunii and Andrea Migno, whose chances of advancing out of Q1 were ended when he crashed at turn five. 

On row eight, Ryusei Yamanaka will start from 22nd, ahead of Dani Holgado, who is currently the Moto3 Junior World Championship points leader. Holgado is this weekend replacing Maximilian Kofler at CIP, who was injured in the lap one crash in Mugello last week. Lorenzo Fellon will complete the eighth row. 

Row nine will see the current Moto3 World Championship points leader, Pedro Acosta, start from 25th. The Spaniard was on a strong lap on his penultimate lap of the session, but had a significant front slide in turn 13 that cost him the lap. It will be tough from 25th, but we’ve seen him put in exceptional performances from lowly start positions before. Joining the #37 on the ninth row will be Andi Izdihar and Takuma Matsuyama, who is back in the Junior Talent Team colours this weekend as a wildcard. 

Last on the grid will be Elia Bartolini, who is replacing Calos Tatay this weekend, after Tatay was also involved in the crash which has ruled Kofler out of action this week. Bartolini has never raced in Barcelona before, and last week’s Italian Grand Prix was his first World Championship experience.