Gresini Racing’s Jorge Martin snatched Moto3 pole position this afternoon at the Le Mans MotoGP round as Nico Bulega’s final lap, which had been enough for top spot, was struck from the record as he had exceeded track limits.
Bulega had set a 1’42.710 to top Martin, who crashed at the start of the session, by a tenth of a second but the time was removed and the pair had to swap places in parc ferme. Martin had been marooned right down at the wrong end of the timesheet but his final effort was enough to take his second pole in a row.
“If I can be honest, this session has been a… disaster! Everything that could happen did happen, so even more so I can be happy with my pole position! I crashed out at the very beginning and I got really nervous, because I knew how important every lap was going to be, given that it was our first and only real session on the dry," said Martin.
"I was struggling, but in the end I was able to get the confidence back and set some good lap-times. It’s good to have found the feeling with these conditions in such a short time, so I hope tomorrow we’ll be able to do a great race: from pole everything looks a lot different!”
Rivacold Snipers’ Romano Fenati thought he had got his fastest lap strategy exactly right bagging top spot with a 1’42.999 just seconds before rain began to fall and everyone rolled into their garages.
With 12 minutes left, it looked very much like it was all over with rain flags being waved in sector three but as soon as the rain started, it stopped and pitlane was again busy as riders rolled back out on to track.
Guevara was the first man to stick in his fast lap before being nudged aside by Bulega as Albert Arenas hopped into fourth place. Fenati’s lap was still enough for third with only minutes left but Martin then stuck it on pole before being relagated by Bulega’s lap that was cancelled.
Bulega’s previous lap was enough to keep him in second place with Guevara completing the front row. Arenas remained in fourth place with Nico Antonelli - who led early doors - in sixth. Marcos Ramirez barged his way forward with a late lap to take seventh with Britain’s Danny Kent rounding out the second row.
It was another difficult session for John McPhee, who ran off the track just before the rain started. The British Talent Team rider did manage to get back out but couldn’t improve enough and will start in 25th place.
