Moto3 Thailand: Bezzecchi banks pole, injured Martin struggles
Marco Bezzecchi took advantage as Jorge Martin struggled with injury to secure the first ever pole in Moto3 in Thailand with a superb final flying lap.
The Redox PruestelGP rider will head an all KTM front row after blasting around Buriram with a best of 1m 42.235s - a lap completed solo while overtaking traffic on track.
The Italian has a massive grid advantage over title race leader Martin, who had a mid-session trip to the medical centre after reportedly struggling with feeling in his right hand, returning with it taped up and splinted for support. The Gresini man could not find any late progress, leaving him to fight from thirteenth on Sunday.
The other front row spots went to rookies - Jaume Masia matched his second from Aragon for Bester Capital Dubai on his final run and was 0.462s behind Bezzecchi, while RBA’s Kazuki Masaki smashed his previous best qualifying of eleventh by taking third on the timesheets after leading the way heading into the final ten minutes of the session.
Tony Arbolino snatched a late fourth for the Angel Nieto team and was the best qualifying Honda rider.
He is joined on row two tomorrow by fellow countryman Niccolo Antonelli (SIC Squadra Corse)who too found late pace to climb to fifth and Red Bull KTM Ajo rider Darryn Binder, who put in his best ever qualifying performance for sixth.
Nicolo Bulega stormed to second before being shuffled back to seventh, but remained the best of the Sky Racing Team VR46 riders.
Enea Bastianini crashed on the final corner as the chequered flag waved - his sliding Leopard bike collected wildcard Somikat Chantra before the Italian was clattered by both bikes in the gravel. Bastianini had done enough before his accident to claim eighth but left the track on a stretcher.
Fabio Di Giannantonio secured ninth on the grid on the other Gresini entry, with Lorenzo Dalla Porta completing the top ten on the second Leopard bike.
Ayumu Sasaki had lead the way after the early laps, and had shown good pace on Friday after topping FP2, but faded to eleventh for Petronas Sprinta Racing.
Wildcard Apiwath Wongthananon was the best of the home riders in 15th for Valentino Rossi’s VR46 Master Camp Team.
Regular Thai rider Nakarin Atiratphuvapat (Honda Team Asia) starts 20th, with Chantra (AP Honda Racing Thailand) 23rd after his tangle with Bastianini.
John McPhee came into qualifying with a broken little toe following his FP2 crash at the Chang International Circuit. The CIP - Green Power rider also struggled with set-up at the start, seeing him as low as 30th before hard work while the rest of the field were in the pits elevated him to 19th at the close.
Aron Canet misses the weekend - his shoulder injury from Misano kept him away, his replacement at Estrella Galicia 0,0; Jeremy Alcoba; will start 29th.
