GasGas Aspar’s Izan Guevara claimed his second Sachsenring circuit record on Saturday on his way to Moto3 pole.
The rapid Spaniard’s 1’25.869 bettered his own record set during the morning’s FP3 to head the session by just under three-tenths with Leopard’s Dennis Foggia and Red Bull KTM Ajo’s Daniel Holgado completing the Parc Fermé celebrations.
The lightweight fight for grid prominence kicked off with Xavi Artigas setting the initial pace for local team PruestelGP almost half a second clear of Avintia’s Matteo Bertelle in second and Riccardo Rossi in third. The Sic58 rider bettering next time around with Honda’s Taiyo Furusato collecting the final promotion place before he too improved a position to drop the Italian to fourth.
The final five minutes brought yellow flags in sector two, as Artigas crashed out alongside Mario Ajo. Deniz Öncü hitting the top spot with Adrian Fernandez third as the Tech3 rider dirt tracked through the gravel at turn one. Josh Whatley and Rossi the next to crash out together at turn three. The resulting yellow flags voiding an efforts in the4 closing minutes.
A late improvement for Furusato looked to demote Artigas out of promotion before the Honda rider’s lap was deleted. Ortola suffering a major moment at turn one to curtail his final shot with Fernandez improving to second in the closing moments as Kaito Toba crashed out at turn 12, from 13th.
Öncü, Fernandez, Rossi and Artigas initially promoted to Q2 but with two of the four down in the 15-minute session the team’s had a rush against the clock to get their respective bikes ready for the final shootout. The Turkish rider’s session topping time deleted due to track limits with Bertelle reinstated in the top four and Öncü dropped to tenth.
Q2 fired up with Jaume Masia on the deck at turn six with the KTM yet to register a lap time. Rossi delayed in heading out due to bent handlebars with the Sic58 squad attending to manually manipulate them before dispatching the Italian on track with ten minutes to go.
Ayumu Sasaki headed the times from MT Helmet’s Ryusei Yamanaka and Sterilgarda teammate John McPhee before Leopard’s Tatsuki Suzuki arrived to second. The Husqvarna pair working together as the session developed as they aimed to maintain their front-running pace.
VisionTrack’s Scott Ogden sat strongly in eighth any the halfway stage with Foggia two places higher. Series leader Sergio Garcia currently circulating in 13th with Aspar teammate Guevara yet to register a classified time.
Holgado took provisional pole on the KTM with a 1’26.189 and four minutes to go as Ogden continued to shine in fifth. Guevara launching to the lead with a 1’25.869 to break his own all-time lap record as Foggia rose to third. The Leopard rider was far from done as the Italian secured second at the flag, Holgado holding on for a front row start ahead of Sasaki, Suzuki and Yamanaka - with the latter facing a long lap penalty in the 27-lap race.
David Muñoz headed Garcia and Bertelle on row three with Ogden dipping to tenth as the session concluded. Joel Kelso and Andrea Migno completed the fourth row from McPhee, Fernandez and Rossi with Artigas, Carlos Tatay and Masia rounding out the top 18.
