A nail-biting conclusion to Moto3 qualifying saw Romano Fenati complete his record-breaking day with pole position at Silverstone for the BritishGP.

The Sterilgarda Max Racing rider had failed to set a time until the dying seconds of the final 15-minute session but with his confidence buoyed by his FP3 prowess, the Italian struck at the perfect time to set the pace and take the pole with a 2’11.325, 0.043s ahead of second-place man Gabriel Rodrigo.

An equally late charge saw Riccardo Rossi take third with John McPhee forced to settle for 15th after a disappointing tussle with track limits and yellow flags throughout the Scot’s home Q2.

Despite leading the championship by over 40 points, Pedro Acosta was forced to fight his way through the first qualifying session alongside his closest title-rival Sergio Garcia, Rodrigo, and Filip Salac.

The GasGas rider was unfortunate to crash out on his second out-lap, at Maggots ahead of his final run, with Garcia having yet to set a fast lap time. Further drama found Yuki Kunii and Kaito Toba in the middle of the track after a turn 16 collision as the final hot-laps unfolded.

Rodrigo sat top from Carlos Tatay, Salac and Izan Guevara as the session neared its conclusion, Acosta running a disappointing eighth, Garcia rising to an equally disappointing 10th after struggling to complete the lap on his damaged Aspar machine. The pair looking at 22nd and 24th place grid starts for Sunday’s contest.

Q2 started with the usual cruising carnage, Race Control readying the penalty book despite the pack repeatedly ignoring any attempts to curb their behaviour.

Fresh from the Q1 fight, Rodrigo headed the times with a 2’11.588 from Niccolò Antonelli, Salac and Dennis Foggia after the opening shots were fired. Jeremy Alcoba sat fifth ahead of Andrea Migno and Deniz Öncü with Stefano Nepa separating him from the fellow KTM of Jaume Masia.

Rossi struck with five minutes to go, finding second, Fenati and the Petronas pairing of Darryn Binder and McPhee so far yet to register a time. Lorenzo Fellon fell at Luffied chasing a fast time on the wheels of Fenati, Ayumu Sasaki doing likewise at turn seven bringing out the yellow flags in sector two as the session wound down and causing a number of laps to disappear.

It was a case of one last shot for the record-holding Fenati, his crew holding their breath that the blistering pace would count as he headed towards the line, the Italian rewarded with a 2’11.325 to take the pole, albeit somewhat down on his morning’s lap-record.

There was no such luck, however, for Petronas, as McPhee claimed 15th at the flag, one place higher than team-mate Binder.

Fenati was joined in Parc Ferme by Rodrigo and Rossi with Migno, Antonelli and Salac completing row two for tomorrow’s BritishGP grid. Alcoba, Foggia and Öncü held row three with Masia, Guevara, Nepa, Tatsuki Suzuki and Carlos Tatay heading the home talent in the top-14. Ayumu Sasaki and the fallen Fellon rounded out the Q2 standings.

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