Leopard’s Dennis Foggia commanded the FP3 times at Qatar on Saturday after a late strike from Sterilgarda’s Ayumu Sasaki was denied due to yellow flags.
Rivacold Snipers Andrea Migno and CIP Green Power’s Kaito Toba completed the top three, with the Leopard rider the only to fine tune his Friday offering.
Saturday’s action got underway with the lightweight class under a desert haze due to strong winds across the 37℃ track surface. Foggia led the times as the session began on 2’06.4 pace running over half second faster than his rivals on just his second lap.
Carlos Tatay and Sergio Garcia vied for next best as the session bedded in with Sic58’s Ricardo Rossi and Husqvarna’s John McPhee rounding out the early top five.
Elia Bartolini became the first faller of the Moto3 season at turn ten on his third lap, the Avintia rider up, okay and quickly returning to pitlane. Migno advancing his Snipers Honda into third next time around.
The halfway stage saw Foggia still in charge but with times still down on Friday’s best until the Italian struck with his seventh effort of the morning. A personal best 2’05.370 allowed him to advance on his FP1 target, while remaining third overall behind Guevara and McPhee. His Leopard teammate Tatsuki Suzuki, Migno and Toba squabbled for second as the session played out, with the trio one-second down on Foggia’s benchmark.
The late session lull was broken by the hum of pitlane as the pack rolled out with four minutes left on the clock. Lorenzo Fellon failing to capitalise as he crashed out on his outlap at turn ten. Alberta Surra doing likewise at turn six next time around.
As the fast laps began to register, Migno was the first to strike, finding second in the session with a 2’05.523 but still shy of his own Friday best so far. Sterilgarda’s Sasaki taking the flag with a 2’05.277 to lead the session and boost his overall performance to second, ahead of teammate McPhee, after an engine issue curtailed his opening day. The time heartbreakingly deleted after the flag as the Japanese rider was dropped back to 22nd and facing the Q1 fight.
Toba and Tech3 KTM’s Deniz Öncü the only other riders inside the top 14 to better their Friday times, CIP’s Joel Kelso pushed out of the promotion zone due to the late shuffle.
