Moto3: Fenati bags second straight pole with Silverstone dominance

Silverstone plays host to the 12th round of the 2021 Moto3 World Championship, the British Grand Prix. Despite cloudy skies, the rain held off for the lightweight class’ qualifying session, which Romano Fenati entered as the fastest rider across free practice, which he dominated.

Silverstone is not a circuit for which many Grand Prix riders have a particular affinity, in that they get one chance a year to ride there, generally speaking, and last year they didn’t even get that. For the Moto3 riders, this is of particular consequence, since they are generally inexperienced, anyway, compared to their intermediate and premier class colleagues.

Furthermore, Silverstone is a long, complicated track with a mixture of high, low and medium speed corners, with emphases on braking stability (for example, Brooklands, Village), top speed (for example, Hangar Straight), mid-corner speed (for example, Stowe, Copse, Abbey) and change of direction (for example, Maggots-Becketts-Chapel; Abbey-Farm; Vale). Its complexity adds to the problems faced by those who have little-to-no reference of this circuit, and two of those in Moto3 include Pedro Acosta and Sergio Garcia, who happen to be sitting first and second in the championship, respectively. In Q1, they finished eighth and 10th, respectively (Garcia after a crash at Maggots), which means they will start from the front and back, respectively, of the eighth row. Not exactly where you would expect to find two of the most promising talents in world motorcycle racing. 

While Garcia and Acosta struggled, Gabriel Rodrigo topped the times. The Argentinian was involved in another incident with another rider on Saturday morning, as a crash for him at Brooklands also claimed Filip Salac. Considering the #2’s recent form, it might have been tempting to lambast Rodrigo for irresponsible riding as in Austria, but it was simply a case of poor luck for Salac to be in the wrong place at the wrong time as Rodrigo’s unguided Honda came barrelling towards the #12.

It worked out in the end on Saturday for Salac, as he joined Rodrigo in advancing to Q2. the Czech rider finished Q1 in second, behind Rodrigo and Carlos Tatay, while Izan Guevara went through in fourth place, on his first visit to Silverstone.

There was plenty of towing going on in Q1, and more importantly cruising while waiting for a tow, and it was more of the same in Q2. It is not as ridiculous a situation as it might seem, though. Being in the middle of a Moto3 field on the way to the first corner is not what anyone really desires, and a tow is of great benefit on the low-powered Moto3 machines. Nonetheless, the result is sketchy at best and dangerous at worst, as proven, somewhat, by an incident we will get to slightly later on.

Indeed looking for a tow proved costly in Q2 for Lorenzo Fellon, who fell off his SIC 50 Squadra Corse Honda at Luffield just as he had slotted himself in behind Romano Fenati who was winding up for a flying lap. Fenati was the target of everyone, but in the end he managed to find himself clear track and with his final lap of the session took pole position with a relatively safe tour of Silverstone. The Italian knew he had some margin, and so he used that to make absolutely sure there were no mistakes or track limits violations on his pole lap, and in doing so he made it back-to-back poles for himself. 

Gabriel Rodrigo qualified second, and will find himself as the Argentinian meat in an Italian sandwich tomorrow, with Fenati on his outside, and Riccardo Rossi on his inside in third, which is an impressive result for the #54 on his second visit to Silverstone.

Andrea Migno was fourth in Q2, and will head up row two, alongside fellow Italian Niccolo Antonelli, while Filip Salac impressed with sixth place. 

Jeremy Alcoba was his usual, sketchy self: pulling wheelies while cruising. In between the undesirable moments he managed to find the time to go seventh fastest, and he will be joined on the third row by Dennis Foggia and Deniz Oncu. 

Jaume Masia completed the qualifying top 10, and will be joined on row four tomorrow by Izan Guevara and Stefano Nepa; while row five will be comprised of Tatsuki Suzuki, Carlos Tatay and John McPhee. 

Lorenzo Fellon crashed before he could set a time, and so will start from row six in 18th, where he will be alongside Darryn Binder and Ayumu Sasaki, who were 16th and 17th, respectively.

Adrian Fernandez was the fastest rider to miss out on Q2, finishing fifth in Q1 and qualifying 19th. He will be joined on the seventh row by Ryusei Yamanaka and Alberto Surra. Yuki Kunii qualified 23rd, but while cruising in Brooklands he made contact with Kaito Toba, who was on a flying lap, so there could be a penalty coming the way of the #92. 

Xavi Artigas was 11th in Q1, so is slated to start from 25th on the front of the ninth row, ahead of the CIP duo of Kaito Toba and Maximilian Kofler.