After Maverick Viñales set the pace yesterday and Luis Salom this morning, today was the turn of Alex Rins to step to the fore, the Spaniard raising the bar to dip into the 2'07s and comfortably seal his third consecutive pole position in the Moto3 class by over half a second. Just two tenths cover second place to seventh, however, making for what promises to be a wide open battle for the podium tomorrow.
MAPFRE Aspar rider Jonas Folger is one of the riders keen to challenge for a top three finish after making a radical switch to his Mugello set-up for qualifying this afternoon. The gamble paid off for the German rider, who will line up in seventh place at a circuit where he celebrated a memorable victory last year. Eric Granado will be hoping for a repeat of his Mugello result tomorrow after equalling his best grid of the season, recorded at the Italian round. The Brazilian youngster finished ninth in that race after qualifying fifteenth and despite a crash this afternoon he is confident of a strong challenge for points tomorrow.
7th Jonas Folger 2.08.716 (12 laps): “We went out in qualifying with the set-up from Mugello, a similar circuit to this, because it worked well there and we wanted to try it. It felt better than anything we have found so far this weekend and even though it wasn't ideal I felt more comfortable. We made some modifications to the rear suspension, which cost us a little time, and did some tyre tests to narrow down our options for tomorrow. The feedback was good but we need to try a couple more things in warm-up tomorrow. Seventh place is not exactly what we were hoping for but to be just a couple of tenths off the front row shows that we can be fighting in the lead group tomorrow. Hopefully it doesn't rain so that we can keep learning about this bike.”
15th Eric Granado 2.09.401 (14 laps): “We have equalled our best grid of the season from Mugello. I was struggling for confidence on the rear yesterday but thankfully that wasn't the case today and I felt good on the bike. I dropped my times relatively easily this morning and felt good this afternoon, improving my lap times again towards the end and doing some tyre tests for the race. My last run was behind my team-mate Folger and I learnt a lot from him. He has some smooth lines and that helped me tighten up my own riding. I had a crash four minutes from the end but it's nothing major and I will be ready for the race.”
Mapfre Aspar Moto3 Press Release
