Joe Roberts will start the penultimate round of the 2023 Moto2 World Championship from pole position at the Lusail International Circuit.

The fourth Moto2 pole position of his career, Roberts’ latest Saturday success harks back to his maiden achievement at the same circuit in 2020, held just prior to the COVID-19 pandemic and without the MotoGP class being present.

Stopping the clock with a 1m 57.305secs lap, Roberts was 0.007s quicker than Celestino Vietti, who looked on course for the top spot after reeling off a series of fast laps in Q1 and then Q2 that lifted Fermin Aldeguer’s practice benchmark.

However, he was forced to settle for second to Italtrans’ Roberts, while Aron Canet will get a good shot at that long-awaited maiden Moto2 win from third place.

Having been favourite coming into qualifying after dominating Practice, Aldeguer - who has started on pole position for each of the last three races - had to make do with fourth, the SpeedUp Racing rider joined on row two by Brits Sam Lowes and Jake Dixon.

Newly crowned Moto2 World Champion Pedro Acosta continued his low key weekend by qualifying seventh, while Marcos Ramirez - this week announced to be replacing Rory Skinner in the American Racing team for 2024 - starts eighth. Manuel Gonzalez completes the third row.

In tenth place, Alonso Lopez - on his first visit to the Lusail International Circuit - might have secured pole from Roberts had the red flags not been thrown late on due to an engine blow for Forward Racing’s Alex Escrig.

Qatar Moto2, Lusail International Circuit - Qualifying Results