Bastianini Claims Home Moto3 Pole

Sep 12, 2015
2 min read

Italian Enea Bastianini claimed a third pole position of the season at his home race at the San Marino Grand Prix.

Bastianini beat the previous pole position record set by Jonas Folger in 2013 with a lap time of 1m42.486s and will be keen to continue his strong form through to the race itself in front of thousands of Italian fans hoping for home success on Sunday. South Africa Brad Binder took an impressive second place just ahead of championship leader Danny Kent who completes the front row after only being 14th until the final few minutes.

The second row is headed by another Italian Niccolo Antonelli who will be looking to join his fellow countryman Bastianini on the Moto3 podium along with Romano Fenati who qualified fifth. Miguel Oliveira finished the session sixth with Danny Kent's Leopard Racing teammate Efren Vazquez leading the third row. Meanwhile, Lorenzo Dalla Porta put in the best qualifying performance in just his third Moto3 race with an eighth place grid position. Phillipp Oettl and Hiroki Ono completed the top 10 in a session where just one second covered the top 15 riders. However, Ono was given a three place grid penalty after qualifying for riding slow on the racing line and will therefore start 13th.

The session saw a crash for Italian Andrea Locatelli who came off his bike at turn 10 but will be assessed on Sunday morning as scans revealed a sacral fracture. Jorge Navarro and Fabio Quartararo, who both crashed heavily in Friday practice, were declared unfit to ride for the remainder of the weekend and will therefore miss the San Marino Grand Prix.

Moto3 Qualifying Top 10 Results:

POLE - Enea BASTIANINI, 1m42.486s

P2 - Brad BINDER, +0.037s

P3 - Danny KENT, +0.296s

P4 - Niccolo ANTONELLI, +0.326s

P5 - Romano FENATI, +0.497s

P6 - Miguel OLIVEIRA, +0.522s

P7 - Efren VAZQUEZ, +0.588s

P8 - Lorenzo DALLA PORTA, +0.725s

P9 - Phillipp OETTL, +0.741s

P10 - Hiroki ONO*, +0.785s

*Ono will start 13th following post qualifying grid penalty.