Tony Arbolino mastered the drying conditions around the Ricardo Tormo Circuit in Valencia to claim the second pole position of his short Moto3 career.

With no rain falling, the circuit was drying, albeit slowly, so it was always shaping up to be a case of a late session dash and putting yourself in a position to capitalise in the more favourable conditions.

There were casualties early, including Marco Bezzecchi amongst others crashing, thankfully all walking away unharmed. It was Turkish wonderkid Can Oncu who was a surprise leader early before times started to drop and some more unfamiliar names started to rise.

Jakub Kornfiel went fastest and the seriously fast time, however with the track continuing to dry, he didn’t stay fastest for long with Nakarin Atiratphuvapat taking the top spot.

However, with a little over a minute to go, Arbolino put hit Honda over a second faster than everyone else. The time was chipped away and Oncu and Atiratphuvapat, but after reducing the gap down, Arbolino took another half a second off his own time to post a 1:46.773.

Despite late efforts from Atiratphuvapat and John McPhee, Arbolino held on by nearly a quarter of a second. With Atiratphuvapat taking a career best second place in his final Moto3 race.

Oncu just missed out on the front row, but the 15-year-old will start his first ever Moto3 Grand Prix from fourth place. The Red Bull Ajo rider will see Aron Canet in fifth and Marco Bezzecchi in sixth.

Marcos Ramirez will start from seventh and will be joined on the third row by Kornfiel and Albert Arenas, who will start in eighth and ninth respectively.

Rookie Raul Fernandez is tenth with Alonso Lopez and Vincete Perez rounding out the top twelve. 2018 Moto3 World Champion Jorge Martin will start from thirteenth, his joint worst starting position in his final race in Moto3.