Dominant pole position for Kent

Moto3 qualifying started with a flurry after rain was forecast inside the first fifteen minutes so there was a series of fast times from the outset with Danny Kent initially setting the pace by almost four tenths of a second before a red flag with 28 minutes remaining after a crash for the Leopard Racing teammate Hiroki Ono after a heavy crash.

John McPhee had a crash on his outlap after he clashed with Livio Loi on the run to the final corner. The incident left the Racing Team Germany rider having to get his bike repaired.

“I’m a little shocked and angry to start the session like this but it’s one of these things,” said McPhee. “It was a strange incident, my bike was a little bit weird on the outlap and I was looking down to see that everything was OK and going into the second last corner I tried to get to the front of the group and when I looked back around Livio was almost stopped in front of me. I’m not too sure who’s fault it was but it was one of those things that was unavoidable.”

In the final quarter of the session Kent upped his pace again with a series of laps underneath the circuit record and the Englishman’s pace was such that nobody could get close to him as he claimed an utterly dominant pole position ahead of Miguel Oliveira with Andrea Locatelli third.

Fabio Quartararo had another strong session with the Frenchman starting from the second row with McPhee recovering to qualify in 15th position.