Estrella Galicia 0,0 Honda’s Aaron Canet took his maiden pole position at the final round of the season in Valencia after a storming final lap. 2016 Moto3 World Champion Brad Binder was just behind him in second, with Honda Team Asia’s Hiroki Ono completing the front row.
It was an interesting session as Gresini’s Enea Bastianini set the fastest time in the first runs ahead of Binder and Aspar’s Francesco Bagnaia. Sky Racing Team VR46’s Andrea Migno suffered a heavy fall early in the session, leaving him stranded in 18th.
The second runs would see very little improvement as traffic meant many riders were unable to put together good laps. There were plenty of orange sectors, but only a few riders made improvements over the full lap. Joan Mir was able to jump to top spot briefly before Austin pole winner Phillip Oettl took over.
It all came down to the final run of the session and more specifically the very final lap. Enea Bastianini was the first to cross the line and couldn’t quite manage pole, though improved one place to second ahead of Mir. Then came a flurry of good laps as Binder went provisional pole and an injured Nicolo Bulega slotted into P2 with Bo Bendsneyder fourth between Oettl and Bastianini. However, that stood for only a brief moment and Canet managed to pip Binder’s time by a few thousandths of a second.
This shuffled Bulega back to fourth ahead of RBA’s Juanfran Guevara, who has looked impressive all weekend. Antonelli completed the second row. Mir did qualify seventh, but had exceeded track limits on his final flying lap and was demoted to 10th. This pushed Oettl, Bo Bendsneyder and Bastianini up a spot.
