The magnificent conditions at Motegi continued for the Moto3 riders on Saturday, as they battled for positions on the starting grid in qualifying. Pole went to Danny Kent, just two tenths of a second ahead of Maverick Viñales, but the place could easily have gone to any of Viñales, Cortese, Khairruddin or even Folger. Times were down over a second on those of Friday, thanks to the increase in temperatures. It appears as if four or five riders will be in the running for the Moto3 victory on race day.
MAPFRE Aspar rider Jonas Folger had an interrupted day on Saturday. He was strong at the start of qualifying and was soon up into the top places. However, ten minutes in he was stopped by an issue two corners from the end of a lap. His mechanics put him back on track a few minutes later and he put in a fast lap of 1’59.125 to take seventh on the grid. Folger had another issue three minutes from the end, but is still capable of fighting for the podium tomorrow and wants to repeat his rostrum finish from Aragón.
MAPFRE Aspar teammate Luca Amato continued his adaptation to the Kalex/KTM. The rookie is not having the best of times at Motegi, but persists in his search for improvement. He will start from 31st.
7th Jonas Folger 1.59.125 (10 laps):
“This morning we changed the gearbox and the bike went back to working perfectly. Our feeling is very positive and we were very optimistic about qualifying, but later we had some setbacks. I don’t know why the engine started to work badly, but I had to stop on various occasions to control it. That prevented me from setting a good pace and getting a faster lap on the board. Despite all this we are calm. We will find the issue this afternoon and will be back to our best tomorrow. We know that we are fast, as even with this problem we were still seventh. I think that there will be a small lead group tomorrow, so I will have to be alert at the start in order to join up with it. My aim is to fight for the podium again.”
31st Luca Amato 2.01.500 (17 laps):
“This bike is very fast and I am sure that it has great potential, but the question is that I need to work a lot more with it, get more laps under my belt and get used to riding it. I had trouble getting a feel for it today, I couldn’t turn it in well and I had to brake too much for the corners. Both myself and the team never stopped working throughout the day in our search to find solutions. Tomorrow we will continue working and I hope that we can gradually find the way to go. The most important thing right now is to ride a lot, learn as much as possible about the bike and try to get a setting that opens the way to riding fast.”
Mapfre Aspar Press Release
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