Gabriel Rodrigo claimed his first pole of 2021 at Barcelona this afternoon with Gresini teammate Jeremy Alcoba alongside for the CatalanGP.
A 1’47.597 lap secured the Argentinian’s dominance for the sixth time of his Moto3 career, with Niccolò Antonelli completing the front row, in third. Battling through from Q1, John McPhee will start Sunday’s 21-lap contest from sixth on the grid.
The lightweight class qualifying began with Jaume Masia, Pedro Acosta, Sergio Garcia and Andrea Migno amongst the 15 riders McPhee needed to better in the bid for top-four promotion.
The opening action saw Garcia take charge with his first flying lap, McPhee sitting second from Masia and the returning Yuki Kunii with Le Mans pole-sitter, Migno, in fifth. The Scot’s third lap raised the stakes with a 1’48.875 before he continued to improve, shaving over three-tenths off the time on his following revolution to sit half a second clear at the halfway stage.
McPhee remained in the box as the majority of the field fired back up, before joining the fray alongside Migno as the pack reeled past the front straight.
Xavier Artigas was the first to shine as he found second with his sixth lap, hot-laps beginning to register in the first sector from Masia and Daniel Holgado before Migno crashed out at turn five.
With the flag flying, McPhee was safe, Artigas, Masia and Ricardo Rossi claiming the additional all-important upgrades with Garcia missing out by just 0.077s. A dejected Acosta sitting 11th and 1.2s off the pace.
The 15-minute shootout saw Darryn Binder one of the first out on track, Izan Guevara taking charge of the standings with an initial 1’49.165 effort as the majority of the remaining riders waited in pitlane for Rodrigo. The pack now fully released, Alcoba headed Deniz Öncü, Artigas and Binder from second before Tatsuki Suzuki and Kaito Toba took over from the rookie out front.
Rodrigo was back in charge as his first hot-lap - a 1’48.257 - hit the mark, McPhee finding second from Masia and Antonelli with Romano Fenati now up to fifth before pitlane called once again. Filip Salac, Adrian Fernandez and Ayumu Sasaki the three riders having yet to classify due to deleted times.
McPhee returned to semi-solo action as he circulated in the closing minutes with just Masia for company, Rodrigo towards the front of a monster Moto3 train. The Argentinian maintained his pole position as the chequered flag dropped, his teammate Alcoba claiming second for the Gresini team with Antonelli up to third. Stefano Nepa claimed fourth from Guevara with McPhee holding on to a second row start in sixth.
The second Petronas took seventh from Suzuki and Masia with Rossi starting Sunday’s race from 10th position. Fenati finished 11th from Öncü, Toba, Sasaki and Fernandez with Dennis Foggia, Salac and Artigas completing the set on the sixth row of the grid.
