Scott Ogden looked to be on for a place in Q2 on Saturday before the VisionTrack Honda rider was forced to settle for 19th on the Termas de Rio Hondo grid.

Ogden held the fastest Q1 time on two separate occasions before the final flurry of activity knocked him out of the promotion zone altogether. The Brit missing out on the pole shootout by just 0.114s and less then three-tenths adrift from Ryusei Yamanaka’s fastest effort.

“It was quite a frustrating session,” Ogden explained from pitlane. “There was a lot of waiting, the typical Moto3 class but I’m happy because I went out, set the laps alone and just tried to push through.

“Just a few too many mistakes and the crashes in the last session didn’t help so much,” he admitted. “Just got to stay positive and see what we can do tomorrow.

“I’ve been practising my starts this week, and they’re getting a bit better. We’ll see because, man, it was crazy out there!

“We’ll see what race direction do, maybe there’ll be penalties, maybe I’ll get one, I don’t know. We’ll see what happens.

“Grip wise it was much better,” he said of the afternoon conditions, “but it was so windy, the top speeds were quite far off. Just got to keep working. I feel like I’ve got a good race rhythm. Maybe not the top ten or top five I wanted this weekend but we’re in the mix for points again, and I’m sure we can do it.”

VisionTrack teammate Josh Whatley continued his education in the world championship but a fall late on in qualifying put paid to his final hot lap efforts. The 16-year-old, however, is confident of his progress on the lightweight Honda as part of the rookie outfit for 2022.

“The season is going good at the moment! Difficult but we’re improving,” he told Bikesportnews ahead of Saturday’s intense schedule. “The team’s also improving a lot and we’re making steps all the time! Not a lot of riders have been to Termas so will be a bit more level and I can’t wait to improve again this weekend.”