Moto3: Arbolino secures Barcelona Pole as Ogura struggles

The Moto3 World Championship is back in action this weekend for round nine of its 2020 season at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. Tony Arbolino entered qualifying as the fastest rider having topped the combined times in free practice. 

There were some major championship players in Q1, with Albert Arenas, Ai Ogura and John McPhee all finding themselves in action in the first session. Only two of them made it through, as Alonso Lopez topped the session from Niccolo Antonelli, whilst McPhee was third in Q1 and Arenas fourth, taking the final transfer spot.

Arenas transferred his decent form from Q1 into Q2, just missing out on the front row but qualifying fourth. The #75 is the only of the championship contender inside the top 10 on the grid, so is in a good position to extend his points lead tomorrow – although of course Moto3 is never that simple. 

Perhaps the primary contender for Arenas will be Tony Arbolino, who took pole position in his final lap – the sixth of his career. In the week, it became apparent that Arbolino had signed for the Intact GP Moto2 team, and after his disappointing race in Emilia Romagna this is a good way to respond both to the pressure after the poor result and the news of his emerging future.

Joining the #14 on the front row of the grid tomorrow will be Raul Fernandez, who held the pole position time for much of the Q2 session but a high side on the exit of the final corner on his final lap cost him. Still, it was not a disaster for the Spaniard who did not look to be in any serious harm as a result of the crash and should be able to start from the middle of the front row tomorrow. 

Gabriel Rodrigo made sure that there will be three nationalities in the front row tomorrow, the Argentine posting the third-fastest time of the session. Of course, despite his South American heritage, Rodrigo spends much of his time residing in Barcelona, and considers it a home race, perhaps even more so considering the absence of Argentina from this year’s condensed and Euro-centric calendar, and so it would be a good place for Rodrigo to take his first podium of the season, which he looked capable of in Misano before his contact with Celestino Vietti in the closing stages of the race. 

The aforementioned Arenas will start from the head of the second row tomorrow, and the championship leader will be joined by Jaume Masia, who has been announced to be leaving the Leopard Racing Honda team who are favouring Dennis Foggia and Xavi Artigas for 2021, and Niccolo Antonelli who put in one of his best performances of the season to qualify sixth – hopefully for the Italian he can carry this form into the race tomorrow. 

On row three, Filip Salac will start alongside Kaito Toba and Darryn Binder. This is an interesting row, as all three riders have had their issues this year, be it qualifying-specific or more general, so these top 10 qualifying positions could present good opportunities for them tomorrow. 

Sergio Garcia rounds out the top 10 in qualifying, and will start from the head of the fourth row to be joined by Andrea Migno and Arenas’ best-qualifying championship rival, John McPhee, who rounds out row four. There is work to do for McPhee from there, but of course it could have been worse, as it was in Misano where he failed to advance from Q1.

Despite being chosen to stay in Leopard for 2021, Dennis Foggia did not have such a great qualifying session, managing only 13th. The Italian will be joined on row five by two of the main attractions from last week’s second Misano race, with the aggressive – to put it mildly – Jeremy Alcoba, and race winner Romano Fenati comprising the final two thirds of the fifth row. 

Despite topping Q1, Alonso Lopez could only manage 16th in Q2, and will start from the head of the sixth row, alongside the second-best qualified of Arenas’ championship contenders, Celestino Vietti, who has struggled for speed all weekend, whilst Ayumu Sasaki was the slowest rider in Q2 and will start from 18th. 

Jose Julian Garcia, the replacement of Tatsuki Suzuki – who broke his wrist in a qualifying crash in Misano – just missed out on advancing to Q2, and the Spaniard will be joined by Riccardo and Carlos Tatay on row seven; whilst Deniz Oncu will front row eight ahead of Jason Dupasquier and the slowest of Arenas’ championship contenders, Ai Ogura who has a lot of work to do from 24th tomorrow if he is to add another podium to his tally for the year, which currently stands at six, the most of anyone in the class.

At the head of row nine tomorrow will be Stefano Nepa, the Italian being joined by Ryusei Yamanaka and Khairul Idham Pawi; whilst Davide Pizzoli heads up row 10 from Yuki Kunii and Maximilian Kofler. Barry Baltus did not set a time in Q1 and will start from 31st and last on the grid.