Sandro Cortese (Red Bull KTM Ajo) took the first ever Moto3™ pole position for Sunday's Commercialbank Grand Prix of Qatar after posting the fastest lap at the very end of Saturday's qualifying session. The German rider's final effort of 2'08.188 was enough to seal prime position on the grid by a margin of just 0.016s ahead of Maverick Viñales (Blusens Avintia).
Spanish rider Viñales – whose top time from FP2 was faster than Cortese's pole – looked set to take first position on the timesheet with his time of 2'08.204 until Cortese's late salvo, with Louis Rossi (Racing Team Germany) completing the front row following a strong session.
Luis Salom (RW Racing GP) led the session towards the end but eventually had to settle for fourth position, and the Spaniard will be joined on the second row by Niklas Ajo (TT Motion Events Racing) and rookie Romano Fenati (Team Italia FMI).
Starting the season-opening race from the third row will be Zulfahmi Khairuddin (Airasia-SIC-Ajo), Miguel Oliveira (Estrella Galicia 0'0) and another debutant Arthur Sissis (Red Bull KTM Ajo).
British rider Danny Kent (Red Bull KTM Ajo) ended the session 12th fastest and will therefore begin from row four, whilst compatriot Danny Webb was 25th quickest on the Mahindra Racing machine. Italian Simone Grotzkyj (Ambrogio Next Racing) had a crash with 10 minutes of the session left, and qualified in 29th.
The Moto3 riders will be back on track at 9.20pm local time on Saturday evening for their 20-minute warm up session prior to Sunday's race.
Spanish rider Viñales – whose top time from FP2 was faster than Cortese's pole – looked set to take first position on the timesheet with his time of 2'08.204 until Cortese's late salvo, with Louis Rossi (Racing Team Germany) completing the front row following a strong session.
Luis Salom (RW Racing GP) led the session towards the end but eventually had to settle for fourth position, and the Spaniard will be joined on the second row by Niklas Ajo (TT Motion Events Racing) and rookie Romano Fenati (Team Italia FMI).
Starting the season-opening race from the third row will be Zulfahmi Khairuddin (Airasia-SIC-Ajo), Miguel Oliveira (Estrella Galicia 0'0) and another debutant Arthur Sissis (Red Bull KTM Ajo).
British rider Danny Kent (Red Bull KTM Ajo) ended the session 12th fastest and will therefore begin from row four, whilst compatriot Danny Webb was 25th quickest on the Mahindra Racing machine. Italian Simone Grotzkyj (Ambrogio Next Racing) had a crash with 10 minutes of the session left, and qualified in 29th.
The Moto3 riders will be back on track at 9.20pm local time on Saturday evening for their 20-minute warm up session prior to Sunday's race.
1 Sandro CORTESE Red Bull KTM Ajo 2'08.188
2 Maverick VIÑALES Blusens Avintia 2'08.204 0.016 / 0.016
3 Louis ROSSI Racing Team Germany 2'08.303 0.115 / 0.099
4 Luis SALOM RW Racing GP Kalex 2'08.566 0.378 / 0.263
5 Niklas AJO TT Motion Events Racing 2'08.734 0.546 / 0.168
6 Romano FENATI Team Italia FMI 2'08.799 0.611 / 0.065
7 Zulfahmi KHAIRUDDIN AirAsia-Sic-Ajo 2'08.847 0.659 / 0.048
8 Miguel OLIVEIRA Estrella Galicia 0,0 2'08.926 0.738 / 0.079
9 Arthur SISSIS Red Bull KTM Ajo 2'09.001 0.813 / 0.075
10 Alexis MASBOU Caretta Technology 2'09.107 0.919 / 0.106
11 Alessandro TONUCCI Team Italia FMI 216.0 2'09.119 0.931 / 0.012
12 Danny KENT Red Bull KTM Ajo 2'09.126 0.938 / 0.007
13 Alex RINS Estrella Galicia 0,0 2'09.139 0.951 / 0.013
14 Alberto MONCAYO Bankia Aspar Team 218.3 2'09.370 1.182 / 0.231
15 Brad BINDER RW Racing GP 216.5 2'09.560 1.372 / 0.190
16 Hector FAUBEL Bankia Aspar Team 2'09.869 1.681 / 0.309
17 Jasper IWEMA Moto FGR 2'09.876 1.688 / 0.007
18 Alan TECHER Technomag-CIP-TSR 2'09.991 1.803 / 0.115
19 Jakub KORNFEIL Redox-Ongetta-Centro Seta 215.7 2'10.142 1.954 / 0.151
20 Niccolo ANTONELLI San Carlo Gresini Moto3 2'10.150 1.962 / 0.008
21 Efren VAZQUEZ JHK T-Shirt Laglisse 2'10.577 2.389 / 0.427
22 Ivan MORENO Andalucia JHK Laglisse 215.1 2'10.760 2.572 / 0.183
23 Marcel SCHROTTER Mahindra Racing 2'11.055 2.867 / 0.295
24 Adrian MARTIN JHK T-Shirt Laglisse 2'11.264 3.076 / 0.209
25 Danny WEBB Mahindra Racing 2'11.317 3.129 / 0.053
26 Jack MILLER Caretta Technology 2'11.461 3.273 / 0.144
27 Isaac VIÑALES Ongetta-Centro Seta 2'11.651 3.463 / 0.190
28 Kenta FUJII Technomag-CIP-TSR 2'12.845 4.657 / 1.194
29 Simone GROTZKYJ Ambrogio Next Racing 2'12.960 4.772 / 0.115
30 Luigi MORCIANO Ioda Team Italia 2'13.024 4.836 / 0.064
31 Toni FINSTERBUSCH Cresto Guide MZ Racing 2'13.254 5.066 / 0.230
32 Jonas FOLGER IodaRacing Project 2'13.695 5.507 / 0.441
source: MotoGP Official
