It could’ve been a historic moment Hiroki Ono, who did take his first ever World Championship Pole Position in Motegi with a new lap record around the circuit. However, for riding slowly in FP1, the Japanese rider suffered a three-place grid penalty and will start from fourth.
This means Italian Andrea Migno will inherit his first ever pole position, after ending qualifying in second place.
The early pace was set by Jorge Navarro as he got up to pace very soon into the session. Brad Binder was also seen running off track early in the session. He would later put this down to struggling on the brakes following two crashes yesterday. Navarro’s time kept him clear at the top of the table for a reasonable amount of time until the home-GP man Ono went two-tenths better and jumped clear at the top. These early times though would go onto to be insignificant with vast improvements later in the session.
Fabio Quartararo had a near brush with being out of qualifying by crashing with 17 minutes remaining. Luckily, he only received bodywork damage and was able to get the front of his bike replaced and get back out on track before the end of the session. He would go on to end 8th.
Nicolò Bulega would be the first rider to beat Ono’s time in the second stint by setting a 1m56.6s with 13 minutes remaining, but in the dying moments of the session after the chequered flag, we would see four riders taking provisional pole within five seconds. First it would be Enea Bastianini taking the top spot, who was dismantled by Brad Binder, then him by Andrea Migno and finally Hiroki Ono would take the top spot with a new lap record in Moto3 around the circuit. Interestingly, Ono was almost a tenth quicker than Migno and had over two tenths on Binder, a big gap for this class.
Looking forward to the race tomorrow Ono said that the win is “possible” but seemed generally reserved about his chances. These will be hampered now he starts in P4. The grid is set up nicely with the more established front runners of Binder, Bastianini and Bulega second, third and fifth respectively. Jorge Navarro, after showing early pace, ended out of position in 11th and has work to do tomorrow.
