2021 Austin Moto3 Qualifying Result: Last To First

The lightweight class opened the qualifying rodeo under a hint of sunshine and for a long time it looked like the sun would shine on Dennis Foggia’s street once more. The Italian looked strong throughout the session and went into the final shootout in provisional pole, but Jaume Masia went from last on the timesheets to the very top on the final flying lap, with a handy tow from his teammate. The Spaniard secured a long-awaited pole position by almost two tenths of a second from Foggia, who in turn won a close battle with Jeremy Alcoba, the Gresini rider only three thousandths of a second behind the in-form Italian.

Izan Guevara scored a fine second row start from fellow rookie Xavier Artigas and the more experienced Tatsuki Suzuki. Filip Salac in seventh place was the final rider to post a time within half a second of pole and will share third row with a seemingly unhappy Andrea Migno and Deniz Öncü. After a tricky FP3 and a fast Q1, John McPhee managed to climb into the top 10, while Romano Fenati could not quite replicate his qualifying adventures of late and will have to settle for 11th grid position. Stefano Nepa completes row four, with Niccolò Antonelli opening fifth row from Ayumu Sasaki and an underwhelming result from Pedro Acosta, the championship leader failing to improve on his final attack.

Rookie Lorenzo Fellon impressed in Q1 by topping the timesheets after being the first crasher of the session but could not keep that going in Q2 and had to settle for 16th grid position and sharing sixth row with his fellow Q1 graduates Darryn Binder and Alberto Surra. The Spaniard just about snuck into Q2 and halted a bit of a fairy-tale narrative for Carlos Tatay, who crashed in Q1 before setting a time and rejoined for one flying lap, only missing out on Q2 by two hundredths of a second.

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