Moto3: Canet Demolishes the Field for Aragon Pole

Despite rain overnight and damp morning sessions on Saturday in MotorLand Aragon, the qualifying sessions for the fourteenth round of the 2019 Moto3 World Championship took place in dry conditions.

In Q1 it was Dennis Foggia (SKY Racing Team VR46) who topped the session with his final lap courtesy of a tow gained by some good track position. Joining Foggia in advancing to Q2 were championship combatant Aron Canet (Sterilgarda Max Racing Team), wildcard and new Red Bull Rookies Champion Carlos Tatay (Andreas Perez Fundacion 77) and Celestino Vietti (SKY Racing Team VR46) who improved dramatically for qualifying having ended free practice twenty-seventh-fastest.

In Q2, it was a fantastic lap from Aron Canet on his first run to win him pole position. The Spaniard was able to find a good tow for the back straight, but more impressive was his first sector, and the move he put on Tony Arbolino (VNE Snipers) in turn nine – it was this which allowed him to take pole by a mammoth 0.701 seconds and put himself in prime position to close his twenty-two-point deficit to Lorenzo Dalla Porta (Leopard Racing) in the championship.

Joining Canet on the front row will be Ai Ogura (Honda Team Asia) and Carlos Tatay, who both got some good track position for their final laps, bringing them both from outside the top ten to start second and third, respectively.

Row two is fronted by Jakub Kornfeil (Redox PruestelGP) in his best Saturday performance since his pole position in Brno last season. Joining the Czech rider on the second row are Celestino Vietti and Alonso Lopez (Estrella Galicia 0,0), the Spaniard using the tow of Dalla Porta to perfection to line up sixth tomorrow.

Tony Arbolino will start tomorrow’s race from seventh as he looks to continue his forward momentum in the championship. The Italian will be joined by the same people he was alongside on last weekend’s Misano podium, as Tatsuki Suzuki (SIC 58 Squadra Corse) qualified eighth, ahead of ninth-placed John McPhee (Petronas Sprinta Racing), who missed the flag for his final lap.

Ayumu Sasaki (Petronas Sprinta Racing) will round out tomorrow’s top ten on the grid, heading up row four, where he will be joined by Dennis Foggia (SKY Racing Team VR46) and championship leader Lorenzo Dalla Porta who was simply not fast enough to challenge for the top positions and has a lot of work to do tomorrow to limit the damage that can be inflicted by both polesitter Canet and Arbolino in the championship.

Albert Arenas (Gaviota Angel Nieto Team) will start from the front of row five in thirteenth, and will be joined by Gabriel Rodrigo (Kommerling Gresini Moto3) and Jaume Masia (WWR); whilst Filip Salac (Redox PruestelGP) heads up row six from Andrea Migno (WWR) and Riccardo Rossi (Kommerling Gresini Moto3) who was last in his first Q2 appearance.

There was no change in condition for Q2, which theoretically handed an advantage to the riders who came through Q1, since it was the only dry session of the day to that point for the lightweight class riders.

The fifth rider in Q1 and therefore the fastest to miss out on Q2 was Stefano Nepa (Reale Avintia Arizona 77), who will start from nineteenth alongside Marcos Ramirez (Leopard Racing) and Raul Fernandez (Gaviota Angel Nieto Team) on row seven; whilst row eight sees Makar Yurchenko (BOE Skull Rider Mugen Race) start from twenty-second ahead of Niccolo Antonelli’s replacement at SIC 58 Squadra Corse, Davide Pizzoli, and wildcard Gerard Riu Male (Baiko Racing Team).

The ninth row consists of Romano Fenati’s replacement at VNE Snipers, Julian Jose Garcia, ahead of Deniz Oncu, who is replacing his brother, Can, in the Red Bull KTM Ajo team, and Darryn Binder (CIP Green Power). Finally, row ten sees Kazuki Masaki (BOE Skull Rider Mugen Race) ahead of Sergio Garcia (Estrella Galicia 0,0) and the injured Tom Booth-Amos (CIP Green Power).

Kaito Toba (Honda Team Asia) pulled out of the Aragon GP weekend due to pain in his shoulder on Friday, a result of his crash in Misano last weekend.

Featured Image courtesy of Gold and Goose/KTM