Gresini rider Jorge Martin delivered on the promise he showed in this morning’s final practice, the Spaniard dominating proceedings in qualifying to take pole in Jerez with a new lap record.
In the early stages of the session, it was Ongetta Rivacold’s Romano Fenati who sat atop the timing screens, the Italian initially setting a decent benchmark of 1m46.815s. On his fourth flying lap, the double Jerez winner knocked just over a tenth off of that time to a 1m46.695.
Just moments after that, however, Martin twisted the screw and shot to the top of the pile with a new lap record of 1m46.004s. With 20 minutes still left on the clock, there was time to beat this. But no-one could, his closest challenger in the end Aron Canet, who was 0.437s adrift.
Fenati was able to shave a few more hundredths off of his best lap time to a 1m46.518s to complete the front row. Championship leader Joan Mir heads row two on his Leopard Honda ahead of last year’s Jerez pole man Nicolo Bulega.
Marcos Ramirez has been on impressive form all weekend, and backed that up with a career best qualifying performance of sixth on his Platinum Bay KTM. Niccolo Antonelli will line up seventh, with Tatsuki Suzuki an impressive eighth.
Andrea Migno pipped Darryn Binder to ninth spot, whilst Fabio Di Giannantonio was unable to capitalise on a tow from his pole-setting team-mate in the closing stages in 11th. Juanfran Guevara, Albert Arenas, Enea Bastianini and Ayumu Sasaki rounded out the top 15, with Gabriel Rodrigo close behind in 16th after an early fall.
