Moto3: Fenati secures first pole in four years in Austrian GP qualifying

The Moto3 World Championship returned to the Red Bull Ring one week on from the Styrian Grand Prix, this time for the Austrian Grand Prix. Izan Guevara was fastest in the combined practice times ahead of qualifying, while Ryusei Yamanaka was declared unfit after a crash in third practice on Saturday morning, which resulted in a broken scaphoid. 

In Q1, the all-important top four was decided right at the death, with strong laps going in from the two BOE Owlride riders of Riccardo Rossi, who topped the session, and Stefano Nepa, who finished Q1 in third. They were joined in advancing to Q2 by Carlos Tatay and Kaito Toba. 

The crash in which Yamanaka had broken his scaphoid also involved Gabriel Rodrigo, who was judged by the FIM MotoGP Stewards panel to have caused the crash. The Argentinian was consequently handed a pit lane start penalty. Nonetheless, Rodrigo went out in Q2 to qualify, despite it having no impact on where he would start from. Tatsuki Suzuki had set provisional pole position early on, but soon afterwards he was taken out, by the aforementioned Rodrigo, at turn nine. It remains to be seen whether the #2 will receive a further penalty, but the condition of Suzuki was enough for the Japanese to be taken to the medical centre, where he was declared fit.

Fortunately for Suzuki, the early end to his Q2 did not impact his qualifying too much, as he was demoted only to second, by Romano Fenati who set pole position with two minutes left on the clock, the Italian’s first top spot on a Saturday since Silverstone in 2017. 

Jeremy Alcoba set a late lap which was good enough to put the Spaniard on the front row, the #52 qualifying in third place; while Jaume Masia qualified fourth, and will start alongside the Tech3 KTM duo of Deniz Oncu and Ayumu Sasaki on the second row tomorrow, the Turk and Japanese in fifth and sixth, respectively. 

Pedro Acosta will head up row three tomorrow, ahead of Dennis Foggia and Stefano Nepa; while Izan Guevara will start from the front of the fourth row, alongside Riccardo Rossi and Kaito Toba. 

Sergio Garcia, last weekend’s runner-up, could only manage 14th in qualifying which, thanks to Rodrigo’s penalty, became 13th. Joining the #11 on the fifth row will be John McPhee and Carlos Tatay; while Filip Salac and Darryn Binder will be joined by David Salvador on the sixth row. 

Salvador didn’t make Q2, but as the fastest rider from Q1 to miss out on Q2, he is promoted to row six courtesy of Rodrigo’s penalty. 

At the front of the seventh row will be Yuki Kunii, who might have made Q2 had it not been for some traffic in the shape of Maximilian Kofler on his final flying lap. The #92 will be joined by Andrea Migno and Adrian Fernandez, who crashed late on in Q1 but was not taken to the medical centre. 

Lorenzo Fellon will head up row eight tomorrow, ahead of the aforementioned Kofler and Andi Izdihar, while Elia Bartolini will complete the grid in 25th.