Submitted by Zara Daniela on
The final session of the day got underway in beautiful conditions in Portimao and it was Sam Lowes who achieved a pole hat-trick and all time lap record after leading the way throughout Q2. The British rider ended the day with a little tumble at turn 11 but Remy Gardner could not find those couple hundredths of a second to demote him and settled for second. If the top two was quite predictable, there were a few more surprises behind them, where Xavi Vierge went through Q1 to climb onto the front row of the grid, under two tenths off pole.
Rookie Ai Ogura did another phenomenal job to open the second row of the grid, initially ahead of fellow rookie Raul Fernandez, but the Spaniard’s best time got cancelled due to a yellow flag infringement and it promoted Marco Bezzecchi and Augusto Fernandez to row two. Albert Arenas also overcame Q1 to join row three, while Joe Roberts seemed to struggle more than in practice and could only achieve eighth position. Aron Canet’s early hot lap was good enough to break the lap record but the Spaniard slid all the way down to ninth place as the session progressed.
Fernandez had to make do with tenth, opening the fourth row ahead of Q1 leader Somkiat Chantra and Hector Garzo, while Cameron Beaubier, Jake Dixon and Nicolo Bulega completed row five. The likes of Fabio Di Giannantonio and Marcos Ramirez did not feature greatly in proceedings and could only qualify 16th and 17th, while Tom Luthi took his sweet time to do a flying lap in Q1 and once he did, it was only fast enough for 22nd. Still not as unlucky as Jorge Navarro, who started Q1 with a big highside at turn 11 and will have to fight from the back of the grid.
Results:
Pos | No. | Rider | Bike | Time | Diff | Prev |
1 | 22 | Sam Lowes | Kalex | 1'42.901 | ||
2 | 87 | Remy Gardner | Kalex | 1'42.924 | 0.023 | 0.023 |
3 | 97 | Xavi Vierge | Kalex | 1'43.075 | 0.174 | 0.151 |
4 | 79 | Ai Ogura | Kalex | 1'43.121 | 0.220 | 0.046 |
5 | 72 | Marco Bezzecchi | Kalex | 1'43.170 | 0.269 | 0.049 |
6 | 37 | Augusto Fernandez | Kalex | 1'43.259 | 0.358 | 0.089 |
7 | 75 | Albert Arenas | Boscoscuro | 1'43.304 | 0.403 | 0.045 |
8 | 16 | Joe Roberts | Kalex | 1'43.314 | 0.413 | 0.010 |
9 | 44 | Aron Canet | Boscoscuro | 1'43.359 | 0.458 | 0.045 |
10 | 25 | Raul Fernandez | Kalex | 1'43.389 | 0.488 | 0.030 |
11 | 35 | Somkiat Chantra | Kalex | 1'43.454 | 0.553 | 0.065 |
12 | 40 | Hector Garzo | Kalex | 1'43.472 | 0.571 | 0.018 |
13 | 6 | Cameron Beaubier | Kalex | 1'43.475 | 0.574 | 0.003 |
14 | 96 | Jake Dixon | Kalex | 1'43.664 | 0.763 | 0.189 |
15 | 11 | Nicolò Bulega | Kalex | 1'43.676 | 0.775 | 0.012 |
16 | 21 | Fabio Di Giannantonio | Kalex | 1'43.744 | 0.843 | 0.068 |
17 | 42 | Marcos Ramirez | Kalex | 1'43.841 | 0.940 | 0.097 |
18 | 5 | Yari Montella | Boscoscuro | 1'44.003 | 1.102 | 0.162 |
Q1 Results: | ||||||
Q2 | 35 | Somkiat Chantra | Kalex | 1'43.318 | ||
Q2 | 75 | Albert Arenas | Boscoscuro | 1'43.419 | 0.101 | 0.101 |
Q2 | 6 | Cameron Beaubier | Kalex | 1'43.482 | 0.164 | 0.063 |
Q2 | 97 | Xavi Vierge | Kalex | 1'43.504 | 0.186 | 0.022 |
19 | 23 | Marcel Schrotter | Kalex | 1'43.523 | 0.205 | 0.019 |
20 | 62 | Stefano Manzi | Kalex | 1'43.772 | 0.454 | 0.249 |
21 | 19 | Lorenzo Dalla Porta | Kalex | 1'43.778 | 0.460 | 0.006 |
22 | 12 | Thomas Luthi | Kalex | 1'43.993 | 0.675 | 0.215 |
23 | 13 | Celestino Vietti | Kalex | 1'44.195 | 0.877 | 0.202 |
24 | 7 | Lorenzo Baldassarri | MV Agusta | 1'44.269 | 0.951 | 0.074 |
25 | 14 | Tony Arbolino | Kalex | 1'44.462 | 1.144 | 0.193 |
26 | 64 | Bo Bendsneyder | Kalex | 1'44.773 | 1.455 | 0.311 |
27 | 55 | Hafizh Syahrin | NTS | 1'44.908 | 1.590 | 0.135 |
28 | 77 | Miquel Pons | MV Agusta | 1'46.176 | 2.858 | 1.268 |
29 | 89 | Fraser Rogers | NTS | 1'46.753 | 3.435 | 0.577 |
30 | 9 | Jorge Navarro | Boscoscuro | 1'49.000 | 5.682 | 2.247 |