Moto3 Austria: Bezzecchi beats injured Martin for pole
Championship rivals Marco Bezzecchi and Jorge Martin began their battle in qualifying as they duelled it out on a drying track with Bezzecchi taking pole position in the final seconds in a frantic close to qualifying for the Moto3 Austrian Grand Prix.
The Red Bull ring began drying rapidly and perfect timing and amazing performances were the order of the day to win the battle to top the crucial qualifying timesheet.
Redox PruestelGP’s Bezzecchi came back from a crash at turn three with around twenty minutes remaining to be the rider on top when it counted most, his time of 1m38.617 enough for pole at round eleven.
It is the KTM riders first pole, though he has already achieved his first win in the class, with victory at Argentina already achieved on his way to leading the championship.
Though coming back from a crash was a great achievement, Jorge Martin impressed even more as he took advantage of the conditions to give him a great opportunity to overcome his injury, riding through the pain barrier after injuring his arm just last weekend in Brno he was in contention for pole but finished just 0.078s slower in second for Gresini and Honda.
Albert Arenas improved to third on his final run to claim the final front row slot for the Angel Nieto Team(KTM).
That pushed Aron Canet (Estrella Galicia 0,0) down to fourth. He will be joined on row two by Tony Arbolino, who seemed right at home on the drying track for the Marinelli Snipers Team in fifth and Gabriel Rodrigo, who also crashed earlier in the session before returning on his quickly repaired RBA bike for sixth at a track where he has proven speed after taking pole last year.
Marcos Ramirez (Bester Capital Dubai) will fill seventh, while Philipp Oettl (Sudmetal Schedl GP Racing)was the first rider to switch on to slicks and rise to provisional pole before being pushed back to eighth after a late flurry of fast laps.
Enea Bastianini claimed ninth for Leopard, with Adam Norrodin completing the top ten best times for Petronas.
Jaume Masia ( Bester Capital Dubai) was the top rookie in the session claiming the twelfth best time.
The riders who performed in Brno have so far struggled in Austria - pole man Jakub Kornfeil starts down in 13th with race winner Fabio DI Giannantonio an even more distant 16th.
Vicente Perez (Reale Avintia Academy) flirted with first before falling just as the track gained grip, leaving him 29th.
He was not last as John McPhee (CIP - Green Power) had a session to forget where he crashed twice, leaving him a disappointing 30th.
Max Kofler (Motorsport Kofler) was the best of the two rookies in the paddock in 23rd , just ahead of Ai Ogura (Asia Talent Team) in 26th.
