Nicolo Bulega stormed to his first Moto3 pole since Jerez 2016 after beating Niccolo Antonelli to top spot in qualifying for the Japanese Grand Prix at a damp Motegi.
Aspar Mahindra’s Albert Arenas set the early benchmark pace with a 2m12.654s, and improved to a 2m12.102s on his second flying lap.
Friday pacesetter Bulega soon took over at the top of the timesheets from the Spaniard with a 2m11.727s, though Arenas responded immediately with a 2m11.261s to retake provisional pole.
With 16 minutes left on the clock, Estrella Galicia 0,0 Honda’s Aron Canet shot to the top of the pile with a 2m10.658s. Keen to to reclaim top spot from the Spaniard, Arenas pushed too hard exiting the final corner and crashed.
Bulega showed strong pace in this morning’s third practice session, but continually squandered his best laps with a poor final sector.
The Italian learned from his mistakes, however, and stormed back to the head of the field in the final six minutes with a 2m09.933s, while cementing his first pole since the 2016 Spanish Grand Prix with a 2m09.688s on his follow up lap.
Canet came close to denying the Sky VR46 KTM rider on his final lap, but Bulega put in one final effort of 2m09.320s to go almost three tenths clear of the field, while Antonelli stole second at the flag for his first front row start since Barcelona 2016.
CIP Mahindra’s Marco Bezzecchi took his best-ever qualifying result with fourth ahead of Enea Bastianini and Romano Fenati, who briefly led proceedings at Motegi.
Jorge Martin heads row three on his Gresini Honda from Gabriel Rodrigo and third practice pacesetter Manuel Pagliani.
Bulega‘s team-mate Andrea Migno completed the top 10 despite being forced to miss the first half of the session as punishment for irresponsible riding during qualifying for the Aragon race three weeks ago. Lorenzo Dalla Porta (27th) was awarded the same penalty.
Bo Bendsneyder was just 0.063 seconds from a top 10 start, while Nakarin Atiratphuvapat will be left ruing a late fall while on a quick lap which left him stranded in 12th.
Adam Norrodin will start from 13th, with championship leader Joan Mir qualifying his Leopard Honda 14th.
However, a six-place grid penalty for dangerous riding at the end of the Aragon race means he will start his first attempt at securing the 2017 Moto3 title from 20th.
Arenas slid to 26th at the fall of the chequered flag after his crash behind Darryn Binder, who suffered a late highside at Turn 5. Australian wildcard Tom Toparis completed the field after a fall in the early stages of qualifying.
