Championship hopeful Pedro Acosta set a time that just couldn’t be beaten by any other rider to start on pole for tomorrow’s race. He will start ahead of championship leader Tony Arbolino and Jake Dixon.
After getting pole last weekend at Mugello, Aron Canet struggled in the one dry practice session that the Moto2 riders experienced on Friday and was unable to set a fast time. This meant he needed to go through the first qualifying session at Sachsenring this weekend. Following the first set of flying laps, he was third behind Barry Baltus and Darryn Binder.
Binder made the decision not to go out for a second time and this would come back to bite as he was eventually dropped out of the top four and did not make it through to the second qualifying session. With 90 seconds to go, Lukas Tulovic also missed out on the top four by 15 thousandths of a second.
During the final run of Q1, Ai Ogura was at the front of a train containing Somkiat Chantra and Canet. Ogura set a good time, but the tow he provided to the riders behind him meant they were able to set faster times than him.
Baltus, Canet, Chantra and Sergio Garcia set the four fastest times allowing them to progress to the second session.
The next fifteen minutes on the track were dedicated to setting the positions for the top 18 riders on the grid. All riders went out early in the session to set representative lap times in case they were hindered later due to red or yellow flags.
Following these first laps, Arbolino had the fastest time followed by Canet, Alonso Lopez, Filip Salac and Acosta rounding out the top 5. Baltus and Dixon jumped up to third and fourth following their second flying laps, but Celestino Vietti dropped them both down after setting a slightly faster lap.
Half the field came in at the halfway point of the session to discuss changes with their crew chiefs and some changed bikes to see if that would improve the times they could set. Chantra was one of the riders who received the call to change his bike.
Albert Arenas set a good lap time to bring himself up to fourth place, just before Salac crashed at turn one bringing out the yellow flags for the riders who had just crossed the timing line.
Acosta and Lowes were in sector three when the yellow flags came out so their laps were unaffected by the caution and the Spaniard set a lap time 0.165s faster than the time set by Arbolino. Lowes slotted into third place with his time.
Lopez and Canet both set times faster than the Elf Marc VDS Racing Team rider, going to third and fourth respectively. Dixon crossed the line with a few moments to spare, setting a time that was only good enough for seventh place but he continued around, taking advantage of the fact that he could have one more flying lap.
When the chequered flag came out, Arbolino couldn’t set a faster time than Acosta. But the Spaniard, Dixon and Lowes were still on fast laps so all eyes were on them to see where they would end up on tomorrow’s grid.
The only rider of those three who set a faster lap time was Dixon who was working the bike incredibly hard through turn 12 and was able to set a 1:24.158 which was good enough for third place.
Canet, Lopez and Lowes will be starting on the second row. Chantra was able to come through Q1 to start the race in seventh place and will be joined by Fermin Aldeguer and Arenas on the third row. Garcia, Vietti and Manuel Gonzales make up the fourth row.
Feature Image credit: MotoGP
| 2023 GERMAN MOTO2 GRAND PRIX, SACHSENRING – QUALIFYING RESULTS | |||||
| POS | RIDER | NAT | TEAM | BIKE | TIME |
| 1 | Pedro Acosta | SPA | Red Bull KTM Ajo | (Kalex) | 1m 23.858s |
| 2 | Tony Arbolino | ITA | Elf Marc VDS Racing Team | (Kalex) | 1m 24.127s |
| 3 | Jake Dixon | GBR | Polar Cube GASGAS Aspar Team | (Kalex) | 1m 24.158s |
| 4 | Aron Canet | SPA | Pons Wegow Los40 | (Kalex) | 1m 24.204s |
| 5 | Alonso Lopez | SPA | MB Conveyors SpeedUp | (Boscoscuro) | 1m 24.264s |
| 6 | Sam Lowes | GBR | Elf Marc VDS Racing Team | (Kalex) | 1m 24.269s |
| 7 | Somkiat Chantra | THA | IDEMITSU Honda Team Asia | (Kalex) | 1m 24.270s |
| 8 | Fermín Aldeguer | SPA | MB Conveyors SpeedUp | (Boscoscuro) | 1m 24.280s |
| 9 | Albert Arenas | SPA | Red Bull KTM Ajo | (Kalex) | 1m 24.380s |
| 10 | Sergio Garcia | SPA | Pons Wegow Los40 | (Kalex) | 1m 24.448s |
| 11 | Celestino Vietti | ITA | Fantic Racing | (Kalex) | 1m 24.478s |
| 12 | Manuel Gonzalez | SPA | Correos Prepago Yamaha VR46 | (Kalex) | 1m 24.516s |
| 13 | Filip Salac | CZE | QJMOTOR Gresini Moto2 | (Kalex) | 1m 24.599s |
| 14 | Barry Baltus | BEL | Fieten Olie Racing GP | (Kalex) | 1m 24.677s |
| 15 | Bo Bendsneyder | NED | Pertamina Mandalika SAG Team | (Kalex) | 1m 24.747s |
| 16 | Joe Roberts | USA | Italtrans Racing Team | (Kalex) | 1m 24.909s |
| 17 | Jeremy Alcoba | SPA | QJMOTOR Gresini Moto2 | (Kalex) | 1m 24.930s |
| 18 | Sean Dylan Kelly | USA | OnlyFans American Racing | (Kalex) | 1m 25.519s |
| 19 | Darryn Binder | RSA | Liqui Moly Husqvarna Intact GP | (Kalex) | 1m 24.612s |
| 20 | Ai Ogura | JPN | IDEMITSU Honda Team Asia | (Kalex) | 1m 24.684s |
| 21 | Lukas Tulovic | GER | Liqui Moly Husqvarna Intact GP | (Kalex) | 1m 24.763s |
| 22 | Dennis Foggia | ITA | Italtrans Racing Team | (Kalex) | 1m 24.787s |
| 23 | Zonta Vd Goorbergh | NED | Fieten Olie Racing GP | (Kalex) | 1m 25.163s |
| 24 | Marcos Ramirez | SPA | Forward Team | (Forward) | 1m 25.600s |
| 25 | Lorenzo Dalla Porta | ITA | Forward Team | (Forward) | 1m 25.713s |
| 26 | Carlos Tatay | SPA | OnlyFans American Racing | (Kalex) | 1m 25.900s |
| 27 | Izan Guevara | SPA | Polar Cube GASGAS Aspar Team | (Kalex) | 1m 25.911s |
| 28 | Kasma Daniel | MAL | Correos Prepago Yamaha VR46 | (Kalex) | 1m 26.125s |
| 29 | Taiga Hada | JPN | Pertamina Mandalika SAG Team | (Kalex) | 1m 26.393s |