Moto3: Migno on pole, Acosta 21st in mixed condition French qualifying

Qualifying for round five of the 2021 Moto3 World Championship got underway in tricky conditions at Le Mans. Gabriel Rodrigo had ended practice as the fastest rider.

In Q1, a late lap from Tatsuki Suzuki saw the #24 go from 10th to first in order to transfer to Q2. Joining the Japanese rider in advancing were Dennis Foggia, Filip Salac and Jeremy Alcoba. 

The rain started to gently fall just before the start of Q2, which complicated things further for the 18 participants – the early laps seemed to be the most important as conditions looked set to worsen through the session. However, the rain became too heavy before anyone was able to set a lap on slicks, so instead everyone went straight back to the pits to fit wet tyres and change to wet settings. Tatsuki Suzuki was the first to get out on wet tyres, with just over 10 minutes remaining, by which point the rain had stopped.

Andrea Migno was the only rider to try to complete a timed lap at the start of the session on slicks when the rain had started. He therefore had better knowledge of the conditions than his competitors by the time he entered the pits, and by the time he was ready to go back out the rain had stopped. Sensing an opportunity, Migno and his Snipers team went with slicks again, anticipating that conditions would improve and the wets would be inferior. Indeed, it paid off, and the Italian took his second pole position of the season through intelligence, feeling and patience, which all allowed him to find the speed necessary to clinch the top spot in confusing and challenging conditions.

In second place was another slick runner, although Riccardo Rossi’s switch to dries was much later than Migno’s due to an incident early in the session between himself and Niccolo Antonelli. The slick decision paid off for the #54, who took his best career qualifying with second place – his first ever front row in grand prix racing, thanks no doubt also to some smart thinking from the BOE Owlride team, who saw the situation at Snipers with Migno and reacted well. 

Jaume Masia was third fastest and the fastest of the wet tyre runners. Masia was able to manage the conditions better than anyone else on wets. After a difficult three rounds between Doha and Jerez, Masia will be hoping that his championship gets somewhat restarted by this positive qualifying. 

On the second row will be John McPhee, who briefly held pole position, Gabriel Rodrigo, and Niccolo Antonelli, who recovered from the aforementioned incident with Rossi to take sixth place on the grid. 

Filip Salac will head up row three, ahead of Sergio Garcia and Tatsuki Suzuki; while Stefano Nepa rounded out the qualifying top 10 and will start from the front of row four, where he will be joined by Ryusei Yamanaka and Deniz Oncu.

Jason Dupasquier was 13th in Q2 and will therefore start from the front of row five, alongside Romano Fenati and Ayumu Sasaki, who had a crash early on in the session. Behind, on row six, will be Darryn Binder, Jeremy Alcoba and Dennis Foggia, whose form does not seem to have picked up much from what was a quite disastrous Jerez.

Kaito Toba was the fastest rider to miss out on Q2, and he will start tomorrow’s race from 19th, alongside Carlos Tatay and championship leader Pedro Acosta who will start down in 21st after a disappointing Saturday for the #37.

Maximilian Kofler will head up row eight, ahead of Yuki Kunii, who crashed late on in Q1, and Andi Izdihar; while Izan Guevara had a disappointing session to end up only 25th, and so will start from the front of row nine. Behind Guevara on that ninth row will be wildcard Takuma Matsuyama, and Lorenzo Fellon. 

On the back row of the grid will be Adrian Fernandez and Xavi Artigas, the #43 having not participated in qualifying having sustained an injury earlier in the weekend, but hoping to start the race tomorrow in Le Mans.