Jorge Martin made a mockery of the frantic Moto3 pack racing by riding solo to take pole position for the Catalan Grand Prix. The session ended in farcical scenes with the majority of the field running together to find a slipstream but Martin ran all on his own, before proceeding to take his fifth pole in seven races.
Aron Canet had been the fastest rider throughout Friday practice and despite the minor alteration to the circuit layout, the Estrella Galicia rider was the man to beat early in qualifying, opening up a half-second advantage over the rest of the field. Although the likes of Martin started to close the gap, Aron headed into the pits with provisional pole in his pocket.
With less than ten minutes remaining, a hush descended over Montmelo with all 32 riders sat in their garages, waiting for one other to venture out. True to form, the protagonists reappeared as one with four minutes to go but with so many cruising around their out laps trying to find the ideal rider to follow, nobody was able to get in more than a solitary lap.
Several made improvements with championship leader Joan Mir climbing into the top three but Martin, who had hung back in order to have a clear circuit, put the rest of the field to shame with a 1:53.365, six tenths faster than anybody else to secure his third straight pole.
Canet held onto second with Mugello podium finisher Juanfran Guevara grabbing third ahead of Romano Fenati, another rider who avoided traffic in the dying seconds. Mir dropped to fifth with Marcos Ramirez completing the second row while Enea Bastianini, Fabio Di Giannantonio and Tatsuki Suzuki will line up on row three.
Moto3 Gran Premi Monster Energy de Catalunya – Qualifying Result
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