Moto3: Antonelli eases to Misano pole, as Foggia’s wet weather struggles remain

The second Misano race of the 2021 Moto3 World Championship was entirely dogged by rain on Friday, and that remained on Saturday, for qualifying. 

Niccolo Antonelli topped Q1, a late lap confirming his position in first place that was already his. Antonelli was half a second clear of second-placed Riccardo Rossi, who is beginning to make a habit of transferring from Q1 to Q2, while a late lap from John McPhee cost Romano Fenati his place in the top four, and Jaume Masia just hanging onto the final Q2 spot in fourth place. 

Antonelli carried his strong form from Q1 into Q2, and dominated the session, spending the majority of the pole position shootout over one second clear of the rest of the pack. In the end, his gap was brought down to 0.611 seconds by Filip Salac, who confirmed himself in second place, but Antonelli eased to pole position.

A late flurry of laps saw a number of riders occupy the final spot on the front row, including Alberto Surra and Pedro Acosta. In the end, though, it was Riccardo Rossi who would take third place, and secure his best qualifying of his grand prix career.

Izan Guevara, having probably had just enough time to recover from the mental and emotional turbulence of race day in Austin, qualified fourth, ahead of championship leader Pedro Acosta. This was an important qualifying for Acosta, especially with Dennis Foggia’s lack of speed in wet conditions. Acosta’s advantage over Foggia was 97 points after the Styrian race in which Acosta was victorious and Foggia pointless, but now it is only 30 with three races to go. The momentum has been building in Foggia’s favour, and the Italian was the winner in Misano five weeks ago, but the unstable weather this weekend offers Acosta a chance to strike back, and with Foggia nine places behind him on the grid, the #37 certainly has a good opportunity to regain some championship momentum tomorrow. 

Jaume Masia will complete the second row tomorrow in sixth place, while Alberto Surra, who once was in third place, will start seventh after what has been a strong weekend for the Italian rookie. Surra will be joined by Stefano Nepa – another one-time front row occupant – and Xavi Artigas on row three tomorrow.

Ayumu Sasaki completed the qualifying top 10, ahead of Adrian Fernandez and John McPhee who completes row four; while Yuki Kunii had one of his better qualifying performances with 13th, ahead of the disappointing Dennis Foggia and Andi Izdihar who complete row five. 

On Foggia, what is quite remarkable is that in a weekend where all three free practices were wet, the Italian has made almost no significant progress on what is his weakest point as a rider at the moment: riding in the wet.

Darryn Binder, a MotoGP rider in 2022, qualified 16th, alongside Lorenzo Fellon and Dani Holgado, the newly-crowned Moto Junior World Champion who is replacing the suspended Deniz Oncu, who qualified 18th on his grand prix debut. 

Having been displaced from the top four late on by the rider who will replace him in the Sterilgarda Max Racing Team for 2022, John McPhee, Romano Fenati will start his home race from 19th tomorrow, alongside Ryusei Yamanaka and Carlos Tatay on row seven. 

Behind, Andrea Migno will still harbour hopes of repeating his podium performance from just over a month ago in the San Marino and Rimini Riviera Grand Prix, but from 22nd on the grid it will take a monumental effort from the #16. Joining the Italian on row eight will be Mario Aji, the Indonesian wildcard who appears to have already out-grown Moto3 machinery, and Tatsuki Suzuki, whose Q2 hopes for what is a particularly special race for his SIC58 Squadra Corse team were dashed by an early crash.

David Alonso, the newly crowned Red Bull MotoGP Rookies Cup champion of 2021, is present in Misano to replace the injured Sergio Garcia, who is still recovering from the kidney injuries he sustained in practice at the Grand Prix of the Americas three weeks ago. It is an early debut for Alonso, who is remaining in the FIM CEV Repsol Moto3 Junior World Championship for 2022 with the Aspar team, and he will start from 25th on the grid, alongside Jeremy Alcoba, who crashed unharmed at turn 15, and Kaito Toba, whose teammate, Maximilian Kofler, will start 28th and last.