Moto3: Binder secures second pole of 2021 in Aragon qualifying

Qualifying for round 13 of the 2021 Moto3 World Championship took place in MotorLand Aragon in predictably sunny conditions. Prior to qualifying, Dennis Foggia was fastest in the combined times from the three free practice sessions, while Izan Guevara was the only KTM (strictly speaking, GASGAS) rider in the top four.

The back straight in Aragon is one of the longest of the season, and the braking point for turn 16 at the end of it is quite late, because turns 16 and 17 are taken, as one, in fourth gear on a Moto3 bike. This means slipstream is vital in MotorLand. In free practice, those that went without a tow down the straight were losing as much as 0.6 seconds in the final sector alone. As a result, qualifying was, as usual, conditioned by slipstream. 

This conditioning was present in two ways. Firstly, by whether a rider could find another rider to follow on their flying lap to get a slipstream down the straight; and, secondly, whether a rider could avoid the riders going slowly as they looked for a tow themselves. 

In Q1, Tatsuki Suzuki ignored that completely to go fastest with a lap set alone, and with Carlos Tatay completely in his way on entry to turn 16. The Japanese rider’s 1:58.345 was enough to go fastest, and enough for the #24 to sit out the remainder of the session and go through to Q2 quite comfortably. 

Filip Salac was fortunate to get through to Q2 having gone wide at turn 10 on his penultimate lap. The Czech rider then ran wide at turn 12 and gave up on the lap, sitting up down the straight. Had he not sat up, he would have crossed the line in time for another flying lap, but he did sit up, so he missed it. In the end, it didn’t matter, and Salac went through in second, along with the aforementioned Suzuki, as well as the #24’s compatriots, Ayumu Sasaki and Kaito Toba. Toba, though, was the final rider to make it over the line and, although he was safely through, he crashed at turn seven on his final attempt, completely unaware of his security in the top four. The CIP Green Power team, then, had some work to do ahead of the #27’s appearance in Q2. 

Toba was able to get out for Q2, but he had little impact on the fight for pole position. That was one dominated by Darryn Binder, who replicated the serenity of Suzuki in Q1 to set his time in the first run, and forget about a second. Binder did re-emerge from pit lane towards the end, but with less than one minute left on the clock the only intention was to get a practice start in. For the South African, who remained unchallenged for the final minutes of Q2, it was his second pole position of the season, and the first since the opening race of the season in Qatar.

Gabriel Rodrigo was pushed off the front row at the end of Q2 by Sergio Garcia, but the #2’s final attempt promoted him back up to second place, while Tatsuki Suzuki was third, despite a crash on his final lap. 

Garcia, having pushed Rodrigo from the front row only seconds before, was pushed from the front row himself, by Rodrigo, and with no time left the Spaniard will start tomorrow’s Grand Prix of Aragon from fourth. Joining the #11 on row two will be Andrea Migno, who moved up to the second row with his final lap, and Deniz Oncu, who was also a late improver. 

Jeremy Alcoba seems to have rediscovered some form after some difficult races in Austria and Britain, as in Aragon he qualified seventh and will be joined on row three by Silverstone runner-up Niccolo Antonelli, and World Championship leader Pedro Acosta. 

Lorenzo Fellon completed the qualifying top 10, and will start from the front of the fourth row tomorrow, alongside Filip Salac and Xavi Artigas, who was the primary opponent to Izan Guevara in the CEV Moto3 Junior World Championship round at MotorLand last season, in which Guevara won all three races from 28th on the grid. 

Qualifying went better for the #28 this year in MotorLand than last, as Guevara set the 13th fastest time in Q2, and will start alongside Dennis Foggia and Jaume Masia on the fifth row. Meanwhile, Ayumu Sasaki will head up row six from dominant Silverstone winner Romano Fenati, and the aforementioned Toba, who crashed again at turn seven towards the end of the session.

Stefano Nepa was the fastest rider to miss out on Q2, qualifying 19th. The Italian will be joined on row seven tomorrow by Carlos Tatay and Syarifuddin Azman, who is in this weekend as part of the Petronas SRT rider shuffle that means John McPhee is absent from his Moto3 Honda in MotorLand. 

Row eight will see Adrian Fernandez line up alongside Riccardo Rossi and Maximilian Kofler; while Yuki Kunii will start from the head of row nine in 25th, ahead of his Honda Team Asia teammate Andi Izdihar, and Ryusei Yamanaka. Alberto Surra qualified last on his first visit to Aragon, and will start from 28th.