2021 Silverstone Moto3 Qualifying Result: Inevitable But Only Just

The first qualifying session of the day got underway under rare blue patches of sky and although the end result will not come as a surprise, Romano Fenati’s route to pole was not as smooth as anticipated. Given his speed throughout the weekend, the Italian left pitlane with a handful of devoted followers on his tail and spent a good few laps trying to shake them off, including a stroll through pitlane. Fenati was yet to post a time with one minute remaining of the session and was not helped by some yellow flags but one final flying lap proved to be enough to secure him pole position. Gabriel Rodrigo sailed through Q1 and held top spot in Q2 for much of the session but lost out on pole by four hundredths of a second. Riccardo Rossi also impressed on his way to third place and a front row start at Silverstone.

Andrea Migno’s late charge promoted him to fourth, the Italian opening the second row of the grid ahead of compatriot Niccolò Antonelli, who made a fast comeback from injury. Q1 graduate Filip Salac completed row two after a tricky time in FP3. Jeremy Alcoba was again on the naughty cruising list but managed to secure seventh place on the grid ahead of Dennis Foggia and Deniz Öncü. Jaume Masia in 10th place was over a second slower than the poleman and opens row four ahead of rookie Izan Guevara and Stefano Nepa.

Tatsuki Suzuki, Carlos Tatay and John McPhee make up row five in a particularly poor session for the Petronas boys, Darryn Binder ending up down in 16th place and sharing sixth row with Ayumu Sasaki, who crashed late in the session, and Lorenzo Fellon, whose persistence in following Fenati ended with a crash at turn 17.

Q1 was fairly entertaining as well and the two big surprises came from the title contenders, with Pedro Acosta not making much noise on his way to 22nd on the grid and Sergio Garcia making too much noise as he started off with a crash at turn 3 before even posting a time and then riding around some bike damage to 24th on the grid.

Results: