Antonelli steals pole at Brno

Aug 15, 2015
2 min read

Italian Niccolo Antonelli took a surprise pole position for the Moto3 Czech Republic GP by 0.002 seconds from Danny Kent.

After signing a new contract on Friday to remain at Ongetta-Rivacold Moto3 team for 2016 and a crash at the end of FP3 it was a superb effort from Antonelli to take only his second pole position with a time of 2m07.667.

Danny Kent had looked like taking pole position after dominating free practice and held provisional pole until his flying lap on fresh tyres saw him significantly hampered by traffic in the final sector costing him time. Championship leader Kent then attempted a second lap and improved his own best time but Antonelli had set a quicker time by 0.002 seconds just ahead of him.

Jorge Navarro completed the front row with an excellent lap to demote early pacesetter Fabio Quartararo into 4th. Alexis Masbou finished 5th just ahead of Brad Binder. Home favourtite Karel Hanika lines up 7th for his home race tomorrow whilst Kent's Leopard Racing teammate could only manage 8th and middle of the third row. Jorge Martin and John McPhee completed the top 10.

Disappointing qualifying for Enea Bastianini (who is currently 2nd in the championship behind Kent) as he managed only 15th on the grid and likewise for Romano Fenati who struggled to 19th after concentrating too much on trying to get a tow from Danny Kent left him down on sector times.

Moto3 Warm Up at 07:40 UK time tomorrow with the race starting at 10am. For full commentary follow our twitter @ILMMotoGP.

Moto3 Qualifying Top 10:

POLE - Niccolo ANTONELLI, 2:07.667

P2 - Danny KENT, +0.002

P3 - Jorge NAVARRO, +0.033

P4 - Fabio QUARTARARO, +0.148

P5 - Alexis MASBOU, +0.219

P6 - Brad BINDER, +0.448

P7 - Karel HANIKA, +0.449

P8 - Efren VAZQUEZ, +0.616

P9 - Jorge MARTIN, +0.655

P10 - John MCPHEE, +0.753