Jorge Navarro spoiled the party for thousands of British supporters at Silverstone by taking pole position for the British Grand Prix, denying Danny Kent at the death. The Estrella Galicia 0,0 rider struck with his very last lap of the afternoon to edge out the home favourite, although Kent will start from the front row, four places ahead of title rival Enea Bastianini.
Having missed the entirety of Friday morning’s first practice session due to an oil leak, Kent was playing catch-up throughout the weekend but the championship leader was fully up to speed for qualifying, taking pole away from early pacesetter Brad Binder on a 2:13.506. With one run completed, he returned to the pits to watch several of his rivals try in vain to usurp him and with 12 minutes remaining, four riders had closed to within a tenth of the no.52 Honda.
The final runs commenced with Kent followed onto the circuit by a swarm of riders seeking a slipstream from the man most likely to claim pole position. However, while he was finding some clear tarmac, Danny was demoted to third by Isaac Vinales and Navarro. Fortunately for British fans, there was still time to respond and Kent reclaimed pole in the final minute on a 2:13.044.
That still wasn’t the end of the story though with Navarro unleashing a blistering final lap, knocking six tenths off Kent’s best effort to claim a first career pole with the fastest ever Moto3 lap of Silverstone. To rub further salt into British wounds, Navarro also towed Karel Hanika around to a 2:12.979, enough to snatch second from Kent.
Efren Vazquez heads the second row on the second Leopard Honda ahead of Vinales and Alexis Masbou while Bastianini heads row three where he is joined by Romano Fenati and Miguel Oliveira. Binder tumbled to tenth, two places ahead of John McPhee while home wildcards Taz Taylor and Luke Hedger are together on the twelfth row.
