2015 Sepang Moto3 Qualifying Practice Result: Towing Wars Make For Very Provisional Grid

Results and summary of Moto3 qualifying at Sepang:

Niccolo Antonelli has taken his second pole of the year in Moto3, taking advantage of perfect positioning within the group to draft himself into top spot on the timesheets. Whether he starts from pole is a different question: with two very long straights at Sepang, the final ten minutes of qualifying degenerated into a gigantic game of chicken, most of the grid cruising round waiting for exactly the right wheel to latch on to. It seems certain that there will be penalties doled out by Race Direction, the only question is who will be the recipient.

The action all kicked off at the end of the session, with a couple of trains of riders heading out of the pits, with nobody wanting to lead. As the clock ticked down, the riders were forced to make a push at the end. Niccolo Antonelli found himself perfectly placed in the middle of a group following Danny Kent and Jorge Navarro, popping over the line at the last moment to take pole. The man he took it from was Jorge Navarro, impressively setting his time largely on his own.

Miguel Oliveira took 3rd spot, the Red Bull KTM Ajo team having worked together earlier in the session to set fast times, putting Oliveira on provisional pole for most of the session. At the end, Oliveira got caught up in traffic and could not improve, ending in 3rd. Oliveira's title rival Danny Kent had a difficult session, lingering well down the field as he coped with riders looking for a tow, but in the final minutes, after abandoning attempts to ditch the riders following him, he was forced to push on for a fast lap, ending the session in 6th.

With all of the towing going on, Race Direction will now scrutinize the footage and the timesheets, and hand out penalties. The final grid will probably bear only a slight relation to the times below

Results: