Gresini Racing’s Jorge Martin has taken pole for tomorrow’s Moto3 race at the Jerez MotoGP round and broke Jack Miller’s three-year-old outright lap record in the process but it was disaster for Britain’s John McPhee who finished qualifying down in 26th place.
Martin used the medium rear tyre - which he prefers over the soft - to set a 1’46.004 and claim a four-tenth advantage over Aron Canet who jumped to second with his final lap and pushed Romano Fenati back to the outside of the front row.
“It has been a great day and it feels good to be on pole position for the second time this year. I’m even happier of our pace with the hard tyre, which is the most important thing. The bike is perfect in this configuration, so I’m ready to go for the best possible race,” said Martin.
Series leader Joan Mir had been sitting at the head of row four with a 1’46.625, set in traffic on the Leopard-backed bike, but his laptime was cancelled and it dropped him back to ninth place, which will be a crumb of comfort to McPhee.
The Oban man fell yesterday and injured a finger but couldn’t find any pace when it mattered and is 1.6s off the pace of Martin, who is in the title chase with the British Talent Team rider.
Nico Bulega was promoted to fourth place by Mir’s penalty and he is joined by Marcos Ramirez and Nico Antonelli. Tatsuki Suzuki ended in seventh with Andrea Migno in eighth. Mir and Darryn Binder complete the top ten.
