Enea Bastianini continues to crank up the pressure on Moto3 championship leader Danny Kent after taking his second consecutive pole position at Aragon. The Italian, who claimed his maiden Grand Prix victory last time out at Misano, showed his maturity during a session dominated by traffic, taking pole ahead of Miguel Oliveira and Leopard Racing’s Kent.
Having missed the Misano round due to a concussion sustained in practice, Jorge Navarro was keen to make up for lost time and set a blistering pace early on in qualifying, clocking a 1:58.526. The Spaniard held onto top spot beyond the halfway point in the session but his superiority was eventually threatened by Oliveira on the Red Bull Ajo KTM.
Aided by the assistance of his teammates who provided a tow on the back straight, Oliveira proceeded to snatch provisional pole before extending his advantage on each of his next two laps, taking him all the way into the 1:57s and half a second clear.
With several riders struggling to find the ideal slipstream in the closing minutes, Miguel looked as if he would have a clear path to pole position but Bastianini had other ideas, choosing instead to circulate on his own. The Gresini rider was rewarded on his final lap of the afternoon with a 1:57.755, securing him a crucial pole position.
Equally crucial was the final lap of Danny Kent which lifted the Briton from a lowly tenth to the outside of the front row. The championship leader’s improvement denied Jorge Martin a maiden front row start after the Mahindra rider produced a late flyer while Jorge Navarro was relegated to fifth as punishment for failing to improve on his mid-session effort.
Niccolo Antonelli starts sixth ahead of Alexis Masbou and practice pacesetter Efren Vazquez while Philipp Oettl and Romano Fenati completed the top ten.
MOTO3 GRAN PREMIO MOVISTAR DE ARAGON: QUALIFYING RESULT
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