Aron Canet became the tenth different rider to claim a Moto3 pole position in 2016 after pipping Brad Binder in the dying seconds of qualifying in Valencia. The Spanish rookie emerged on top of a frantic session which saw one second cover the top 27 riders, setting the stage for a chaotic group battle in tomorrow’s race.
Juanfran Guevara had been the fastest rider through free practice but the RBA rider didn’t feature in the battle for pole, his FP3 benchmark being beaten inside the opening nine minutes by Enea Bastianini. The Italian is chasing the championship runner-up spot tomorrow but Joan Mir has his eyes on the Rookie-of-the-Year title and moved himself to the top of the leaderboard ten minutes later.
Mir was soon demoted by Philipp Oettl who clocked a 1:39.552 and with traffic dominating the latter stages, the German looked on course for his second career pole. Binder changed that though, finding enough clear track to set a 1:39.279 on his penultimate lap while several other riders relegated Oettl still further. The final word would go to Canet though who edged in front of the world champion by eighteen thousandths of a second to secure his maiden Grand Prix pole.
Hiroki Ono snatched the final front row spot ahead of Nicolo Bulega who seized the advantage in the rookie battle with fourth spot. Practice pacesetter Guevara salvaged fifth after a quiet session while Niccolo Antonelli bumped Oettl to the third row in seventh.
Bo Bendsneyder will start eighth on the second Red Bull Ajo KTM with Bastianini and Mir shuffled back to ninth and tenth despite holding provisional pole earlier on.
Moto3 Gran Premio Motul de la Comunitat Valenciana (Qualifying Result)
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