Moto3 Buriram: Vietti powers to maiden pole position
Celestino Vietti took his maiden pole on his first visit to Buriram after finding the perfect track position in qualifying for the Moto3 Thailand Grand Prix.
The Sky Racing Team VR46 rider had only been 20th overall after Friday and had had to find his way out of Q1 first.
After topping that session he used the time on track to his advantage and impressed in Q2 as his strategy pulled him out of the pits behind championship leader Lorenzo Dalla Porta, he then worked to shrink the gap and make good use of a slipstream, passing the Spaniard as he ran wide at turn five and then enjoyed a near perfect run to the line on his KTM to claim the top spot on the grid.
Marcos Ramirez shot up to second as the clock ticked down to zero for Leopard Racing, just 0.118s behind after finding improvements on his final flying lap to be the best placed Honda rider.
The final front row slot went to Albert Arenas (Gaviota Angel Nieto Team) equalling his best qualifying performance to date.
Kaito Toba (Honda Team Asia) saw a return to his form from the start of the season to claim fourth in the hot, sticky conditions which followed the downpours from earlier in the day.
Joining him on row two are Alonso Lopez taking his best qualifying result to date on the Estrella Galicia Honda in fifth and title contender Aron Canet, who had an eventful time with what seemed like a bike issue midway through the session on his way to sixth. Dalla Porta, who leads the overall standings, starts tenth.
Andrea Migno (Mugen Race) claimed the seventh slot on the grid ahead of Gabriel Rodrigo, who went out solo to top the timesheets for Gresini before being shuffled back to eighth as the chasing group who emerged from the pits all took advantage behind.
Tony Arbolino put in a performance good enough for the top ten places on the grid, moving into ninth late on for VNE Snipers.
A podium finisher last time out in Aragon, Dennis Foggia has a lot of work to do if he wants to repeat that success in the first of the flyaway races, he starts twelfth on the second Sky entry.
John McPhee, who had needed to graduate from Q1 for Petronas Sprinta Racing knew he could not make gains on his last run and pulled into the pits, leaving the British rider 13th on the grid.
Julian Jose Garcia (in for Romano Fenati at VNE Snipers) was incredibly unfortunate not to move into Q1 with an identical time posted to fourth placed rider Filip Salac. He was also the best of the replacement riders as the injury roster increases.
After his impressive performance in Spain, Ai Ogura also failed to progress - out of his seat and wobbling on more than one occasion, he ended his session in the gravel and starts from 24th.
Ahead of him Tom Booth-Amos finished Q2 with his best qualifying result to date - a new chassis powered him to 8th in the session - 22nd overall, out-qualifying his teammate Darryn Binder for the first time in the process.
The grid will look a little different to the qualifying results come Sunday with Sasaki (18th in qualifying) handed a back of the grid start for irresponsible riding in FP1 and Kornfeil (15th) given a 12 place penalty for the same offence.
In addition, both Riccardo Rossi (20th) Filip Salac (14th) also move to the back of the grid for riding slowly, while Binder was given a six place penalty for causing contact in the Aragon Grand Prix.
