Moto3: Returning Garcia takes Portimao pole, Acosta 14th

The Moto3 World Championship enters its penultimate round this weekend, as it visits the Autodromo do Algarve in Portugal for the second time in 2021, for the Grand Prix of the Algarve. Ahead of qualifying, both title contenders – Pedro Acosta and Dennis Foggia – were automatically through to Q2 after free practice, while Gabriel Rodrigo was declared unfit after FP3 as his shoulder struggles persist. 

In Q1, Niccolo Antonelli seemed a favourite to go through after showing decent form in recent races. But the Italian made it difficult for himself by not setting a representative time after his first run, and only going fourth-fastest with his fastest time from the second run. It proved to be enough, though, despite late charges from the likes of Lorenzo Fellon, Stefano Nepa and Riccardo Rossi, for Antonelli to go through to Q2 in fourth. Finishing above him in the first session were Alberto Surra in third, Yuki Kunii in second, and Jeremy Alcoba who dominated the session and topped it by over half a second.

The second qualifying session was destined to be a tense one, with most of the attention paid to Acosta and Foggia and their title fight. In the end, though, it was Acosta’s original challenger, Sergio Garcia, who took pole position on his return from injury, having missed the Texan and Emilia Romagna grands prix. A tremendous return for the Spaniard, although maintaining the pace for a full race distance, having not raced in almost two months, could be expected to cause more problems for the #11 tomorrow.

Joining Garcia on tomorrow’s front row will be John McPhee and Adrian Fernandez. McPhee threatened pole position throughout the session, and only missed out by the smallest of margins at the end. Fernandez, on the other hand, was fairly anonymous in the session until his final lap propelled him to his first career front row, with what was his best performance since he finished the French Grand Prix in sixth.

Dennis Foggia was briefly on the front row in second place with his final lap, but was soon demoted to fourth by McPhee and Fernandez. While the front row would have been in Foggia’s ideal scenario for tomorrow’s race, he will still be starting 10 places ahead of championship leader Pedro Acosta, whose final lap was cancelled for track limits and will start down in 14th place. For the Italian, there is a great opportunity tomorrow to take yet more significant points out of Acosta, who will have a tough job starting from row five. 

In fifth place on tomorrow’s grid will be Jaume Masia. The Spaniard will be in a good position to help out his teammate, Acosta, as he will be starting alongside Foggia. Similarly, Xavi Artigas will be in position to help out Foggia, as the #43 rookie will start from sixth, next to Masia. Moto3 races can be incredibly hectic, and planning team orders is almost impossible, but neither Red Bull KTM Ajo nor Leopard Racing Honda could have asked much more from their ‘number 2’ (a terrible term, but it makes sense in this scenario) riders.

Darryn Binder will head up row three tomorrow, alongside Niccolo Antonelli and Filip Salac. After the first runs, Salac was on provisional pole, but in the space of a few seconds he ended up in ninth, which is indicative of the chaos the Moto3 often provides. 

Ayumu Sasaki rounded out the qualifying top 10, and will be joined on the fourth row by Jeremy Alcoba – who bettered his Q1 time by 0.3 seconds, but was nonetheless 0.6 seconds off pole position – and Izan Guevara. 

Romano Fenati and Alberto Surra will start either side of points leader Acosta tomorrow, in 13th and 15th, respectively, while Andrea Migno will start 16th after crashing on his final lap. Alongside Migno on row six will be Yuki Kunii and Tatsuki Suzuki, the #24 having not set a time in qualifying.

Joel Kelso, subbing this weekend for Maximilian Kofler, was the fastest rider to miss out on Q2, while Riccardo Rossi was sixth in Q1 and Dani Holgado – again replacing the suspended Deniz Oncu this weekend – seventh. They will start from 19th, 20th and 21st, respectively, in tomorrow’s second-last race of the season. 

Stefano Nepa’s late charge in Q1 only amounted to eighth in the end, which will put him 22nd on the grid, alongside Lorenzo Fellon and Ryusei Yamanaka on the eighth row; while Andi Izdihar will head up row nine from Carlos Tatay and a disappointing Katio Toba.