Jaume Masia set his sights firmly on a second victory in the DohaGP after securing pole in Saturday’s hotly contested Moto3 qualifying. 

Sergio Garcia and Jeremy Alcoba claimed second and third in the Q2 shootout with Gabriel Rodrigo promoted to the front row after Garcia’s FP2 penalty will see him start tomorrow’s contest from the pitlane. 

Qualifying began as a bit of a team affair as the Snipers duo of Andrea Migno and Filip Salac held the early Q1 times, Lorenzo Fellon and Riccardo Rossi completing the sought after Q2 promotion spots by the half way stage. A disconsolate Deniz Öncü failing to set at time after sending his KTM through the gravel in the final sector on his first personal best time. 

Five minutes to go and it was all change at the top as Dennis Foggia, Jason Dupasquier and Xavier Artigas claimed second to fourth, Migno managing to hold fast at the top, at least for now. The penultimate minute saw the Leopard riders working together to improve their times further, Foggia leading his rookie teammate, and Dupasquier, around the windswept Losail circuit, with the Italian taking the brunt of the headwind as the duo behind made the most of the slipstream to advance their times, swap positions and ensure their Q2 contention. 

The opening 15 minutes concluded with no change to the top-four. Adrian Fernandez, the first to confirm his grid place for Sunday’s 18-lap race, will line up 19th, from Salac, Fellon, Ayumu Sasaki, Rossi, Carlos Tatay, Yuki Kunii, Max Kofler and Andi Farid Izdihar. Öncü’s crash placed him last in the standings but his earlier penalty will see him join six others in the pitlane come race day. 

Q2 began as dusk settled over the Doha track. KTM’s impressive duo Masia and Acosta circulated together as the second 15-minutes fired up, the Petronas pairing of John McPhee and Darryn Binder doing likewise as the team strategies were proudly on show but it was GasGas who would claim the early honours. Garcia and Izan Guevara headed the times as the first efforts registered before Migno swept through to claim provisional pole with a 2’06.730. Niccolò Antonelli coming home in fourth ahead of rookie, Acosta. 

Ryusei Yamanaka’s first attempt was impaired by contact from Rodrigo behind, sitting him 14th, while the Gresini rider was seemingly unperturbed as he claimed sixth after his first run. The Petronas plan failed to fulfil expectations in the opening half with McPhee only able to achieve 11th, Binder 17th before the second runs began. 

The final flying laps saw the times reshuffle as games played out on track. Masia claiming the ultimate glory, and a Tissot watch, with a 2’05.913 from Garcia and Jeremy Alcoba. Rodrigo finished fourth from Tatsuki Suzuki and Migno with Binder besting McPhee for seventh and eighth.  Acosta was forced to settle for ninth at the line ahead of fellow rookie Guevara with Dupasquier, Antonelli, Kaito Toba and Romano Fenati rounding out the top-14. Stefano Nepa, Artigas, Yamanaka and Foggia completed the Q2 standings but with five of the top-18 starting from pitlane the grid positions would face a further shake up. 

Rodrigo’s promotion to the front row, sees Suzuki, Migno and Binder lining up on row two. McPhee heads row three to be joined by Guevara and Dupasquier with Antonelli, Toba and Artigas behind on row four. Yamanaka, the last of the Q2 riders to head for the grid, will instead have Fernandez and Salac for company on Sunday.