Romano Fenati snatched pole position in the dying moments of Moto3 qualifying. He set a time of 2:06.131 after the chequered flag, when he got a massive tow down the start finish straight.
Bumped into second place by a mere 0.047s was Livio Loi, with Brad Binder in third. Binder, however, received a penalty in free practice which means he will drop three places on the grid to start sixth.
Fabio Quartararo will be promoted to third, with Jorge Navarro in fourth and rookie Aron Canet for Estrella Galicia will start fifth.
Niccolo Antonelli suffered his third crash of the weekend and will start seventh on the grid. Qualifying immediately behind him was Dutchman Bo Bendsneyder, who, like his teammate, was also issued a three-place grid penalty for being too slow in three sectors in free practice. He will start 11th.
Enea Bastianini will be promoted to eighth, ahead of Phillip Oettl in ninth and Joan Mir in 10th.
Conditions were tricky with a strong head wind on the start/finish straight, and a lot of riders were caught out. Francesco Bagnaia, Nicolo Bulega, Jorge Martin and Juanfran Guevara will be looking to improve on their 12th, 13th, 14th and 15th positions respectively, with Andrea Locatelli mired down in 20th. John McPhee’s torrid weekend continues with an under-performing Peugeot leaving him down in 30th position.
But with a second covering the top 22 riders, there’s practically nothing between them. A lot of fast riders will be vying for track position in what will surely be a typically frantic Moto3 race.
The race starts on Sunday at 1500 GMT.
