Antonelli Secures Sepang Pole as Kent Penalised

Oct 24, 2015
3 min read

Niccolo Antonelli claimed his second pole position of the season in another adrenaline fuelled Moto3 qualifying at Sepang.

The Italian rider set a time of 2m12.653s in the closing moments of qualifying to secure his third career pole position in a closely fought session which had just one second covering the top 14 riders. Jorge Navarro found time between practice and qualifying to line up second on the grid in the hot Sepang conditions. Title contender and winner from Phillip Island, Miguel Oliveira, completed the front row and will be hoping to outscore championship leader Danny Kent tomorrow by more than 15 points to keep the title alive at the season finale in Valencia.

However, it was yet another qualifying dominated by riders trying to get a tow, riding slowly on the racing line and grid penalties galore. The most high-profile penalty was for the Championship leader Danny Kent who for the third race in succession was penalised three grid places for riding slowly on the racing line. Kent had become growingly frustrated by riders attempting to get a slipstream from him throughout the session that he was caught riding slowly on the racing line as he tried to find some clear track.

Kent even took a ride through the pit lane to attempt to shake off the other riders and once he found a gap he initially qualified sixth. Race direction, however, handed Kent a three place penalty and therefore will start the potentially championship deciding race from a lowly ninth. After the session Kent spoke to motogp.com and described his frustration: "It was a frustrating qualifying today. A lot of riders tried to follow me even when I entered the pit lane to try to come away from them all, but my strategy didn't work out. So the only thing I can say is that I'm frustrated. But the most important thing is that we're ready for tomorrow's race thanks to a fast and consistent pace."

Elsewhere, Jakub Kornfeil qualified an impressive fourth as his Malaysian team participate in their home race with Romano Fenati and Francesco Bagnaia completing the second row. Efren Vazquez was another rider to be hit with a riding slow penalty and will start from seventh alongside Enea Bastianini and Danny Kent. Meanwhile, Malaysian rider Zulfahmi Khairuddin qualifited tenth place to the delight of the home crowd and represents his best qualifying result since Indianapolis in the Summer.

John McPhee suffered a horrible crash in the final practice session but was able to recover and qualify a respectable 12th. There was an incident between Lorenzo Dalla Porta and Gabriel Rodrigo in the session which saw both riders crash out at turn 15 and will start from 23rd and 20th respectively. The other riders given a penalty for riding slow on the racing line were Isaac Vinales, Andrea Migno and Manuel Pagliani.

Moto3 Malaysian Grand Prix Qualifying Results Top10:

POLE - NICCOLO ANTONELLI, 2m12.653s

2nd - Jorge NAVARRO, +0.047s

3rd - Miguel OLIVEIRA, +0.240s

4th - Efren VAZQUEZ, +0.303s*

5th - Jakub KORNFEIL, +0.334s

6th - Danny KENT, +0.341s*

7th - Romano FENATI, +0.453s

8th - Francesco Bagnaia, +0.514s

9th - Enea BASTIANINI, +0.579s

10th - Zulfahmi KHAIRUDDIN, +0.627s

*Vazquez and Kent given three place grid penalties for riding slowly on the racing line.