Moto3 Aragon: Immaculate Canet claims pole in style
Championship contender Aron Canet got everything right to claim pole position ahead of the Moto3 Aragon Grand Prix in Spain. Lorenzo Dalla Porta, who leads the standings starts twelfth.
The Sterilgarda Max Racing Team rider had, for the second weekend in a row, needed to advance from Q1 first - he then held on sat on his KTM in the garage waiting for the best track position, released in time to first slipstream and pass Tony Arbolino and then gain a huge tow from Jaume Masia ahead of him, ensuring pole was his with a best of 1m 58.197s.
With over a second lead heading into the final flying laps, it was rookie Ai Ogura who came closest to catching the Spaniard, gaining from the riders in front of him as he reached the chequered flag. The Honda Team Asia rider made a late leap from near the bottom of the timing screens to second, equalling his best qualifying performance, but still 0.701s short of the pole time.
Third went to an incredible performance from wildcard Carlos Tatay. Riding for Fundacion Andreas Perez 77, the sixteen year old had already impressed by making it out of Q1 and used his track knowledge from that short session - the first of the day where the track was dry - as well as his time from running in the Red Bull Rookies at Aragon this weekend (where he already has the title confirmed ahead of the final races at Motorland) to find a tow on his final run and shoot up to a front row start.
That pushed Jakub Kornfeil ( Redox PruestelGP) down to fourth. He is joined on row two by Celestino Vietti (Sky Racing Team VR46), proving again that Q1 track time can be useful on his way to fifth, and Estrella Galicia’s Alonso Lopez in sixth.
Tony Arbolino (VNE Snipers) never really recovered from being passed by Canet and dropped to seventh. He starts ahead of Misano pole sitter and race winner Tatsuki Suzuki, the SIC58 Squadra Corse rider briefly lead the session before tumbling down the timesheets.
John McPhee ran a strong lap at the same time as Canet took provisional pole to move into third, but both bailed at the start of their next runs - for McPhee this proved crucial as he lost his rhythm and missed out on putting in one final fast lap along with the rest of the field - the Petronas rider could only watch as he slipped down to ninth.
His teammate Ayumu Sasaki did enough to climb into the top ten as the session drew to a close.
Championship leader Lorenzo Dalla Porta got his strategy a little off, trying to leave the pits behind Suzuki, he instead ended up behind Lopez. Once he passed him the Japanese rider was too far up the track to gain a tow from, and although he improved from seventeenth, the Leopard rider still has a lot of work to do to get back on terms with pole man Canet from twelfth.
Briton Tom Booth Amos (CIP Green Power) is carrying multiple fractures including one to his vertebrae, pushing through the pain barrier he qualified 30th but was over two seconds off the lead time.
A second wild card - Gerard Riu Male (Baiko Racing Team) also gets a run out in Spain. He qualified 24th.
Kaito Toba withdrew from the race weekend after Friday practice, with the injuries he sustained in Misano proving too much to power through.
Back-to-back rounds took a toll on the walking wounded with Romano Fenati, Niccolo Antonelli and Can Oncu all absent after their crashes in San Marino.
Their replacements Julian Jose Garcia (VNE Snipers), Davide Pizzoli (SIC58 Squadra Corse), and Deniz Oncu (Red Bull KTM Ajo) all failed to progress from Q1 - Pizzoli qualified highest in 23rd with Garcia 25th and Oncu 26th.
