Jorge Martin grabbed his seventh pole position of the 2018 Moto3 season after a frantic finish to qualifying at Silverstone. The Gresini rider found grip where others couldn’t after a mid-session rain shower, enabling him to edge out Jaume Masia and Lorenzo Dalla Porta. Championship leader Marco Bezzecchi paid the price for a crash on his last lap, winding up eleventh.
With this morning’s session largely inconclusive due to overnight rain, there was very little form to work with heading into qualifying but the championship contenders were both keen to get a banker lap in. It appeared as though the two both had the same idea though as Martin attempted to let Bezzecchi pass, thus using the KTM for a slipstream, but the strategy certainly did not gain approval from the Italian.
Bezzecchi’s initial lap had given him provisional pole, his time of 2:13.962 already faster than the free-practice benchmark, but the PruestelGP rider dropped back behind Fabio Di Giannantonio and Gabriel Rodrigo who both set faster lap times before the rain clouds opened. With that, the session appeared to be over, with Aron Canet even venturing out on wet tyres, but there would be one last sting in the tail.
With the sun back out, the riders flooded back on track for one last attempt and red sectors began to illuminate the timing screens. Martin’s were the fastest of all though as he clocked a 2:13.292 to secure another stunning pole position, with Jaume Masia and Lorenzo Dalla Porta completing a surprising front row after also exploiting the grip of the track late on.
Albert Arenas will start fourth after edging out long-time polesitter Di Giannantonio while Tatsuki Suzuki relegated Rodrigo to seventh after the Argentine crashed moments before the chequered flag. Enea Bastianini and Nicolo Bulega make up the rest of row three, just ahead of Marcos Ramirez, while Bezzecchi must come through from eleventh to preserve his championship lead.
2018 Moto3 GoPro British Grand Prix (Qualifying)
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