Ogura starts first in Moto2 in his first ‘match point’ against Augusto Fernández
The ‘poleman’ Foggia seeks to snatch the Moto3 runner-up from García Dols
MADRID, 22 Oct. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Spanish rider Jorge Martín (Ducati) has won a record pole position for the MotoGP race at the Malaysian Grand Prix, the nineteenth and penultimate round of the Motorcycle World Championship, in which the Italian Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati) will start ahead of the Frenchman Fabio Quartararo (Yamaha) in pursuit of the title.
A time of 1:57.790 earned the rider from San Sebastián de los Reyes to beat the historical record of the track in the premier class and to guarantee himself the privileged position in the front row, where he will be accompanied by the Italian Enea Bastianini (Ducati) and a Marc Márquez (Repsol Honda) who confirmed his good feelings in free practice with a third position.
The great negative surprise was offered by the candidates for the title, who did not go beyond the middle of the grid. ‘Pecco’ Bagnaia, leader with a 14-point advantage over Quartararo, had to go through Q1, which he passed with flying colors, but after suffering a crash in Q2, only ninth place at the start could be guaranteed, closing the third row.
Tenth will start the third overall, the Spaniard Aleix Espargaró (Aprilia), who went down in his last attempt, while the second, Nice, also fell in free practice -injuring a finger- and will start twelfth in a fourth row that he will share with Granollers and with Joan Mir (Suzuki), eleventh.
Regarding the rest of the Spaniards in the final round, Alex Rins (Suzuki), winner at Phillip Island, will start fifth, while Maverick Viñales (Aprilia) will start eighth.
In Moto2, the Japanese Ai Ogura (Kalex) will try to take advantage of his first ‘match point’ starting from pole in Sepang, while the Spanish Augusto Fernández (Kalex), 3.5 points behind the leader in general, will try to come back from the sixth place to prevent it.
The Japanese will lead the first row ahead of the Italian Tony Arbolino (Kalex) and the Spanish Arón Canet (Kalex), while the British Jake Dixon (Kalex) and Manu González (Kalex) will accompany the Spaniard in the second row.
Meanwhile, Pedro Acosta (Kalex) will start eighth, Alonso López (Boscoscuro) will do so tenth, Albert Arenas (Kalex) thirteenth and Fermín Aldeguer (Boscoscuro), sixteenth.
Finally, in Moto3, the already champion Izan Guevara (GasGas) will stand between the two candidates for runner-up, Dennis Foggia (Honda) and his teammate Sergio García Dols (GasGas).
In Italian, with the absolute track record (2:11.411), pole was guaranteed for Sunday’s race, in which he will try to reduce the two points that separate him in the classification from second place in Burriana, which will start third and that he will seek the help of his garage colleague in the Gaviota GasGas Aspar Team.
For their part, Jaume Masià (KTM) and Dani Holgado (KTM) -candidate for ‘rookie’ of the year- will start fourth and fifth, respectively, while David Muñoz (KTM) will start tenth, Iván Ortolá (KTM) will do fourteenth and Carlos Tatay (CFMoto), seventeenth. Among those who could not make it through the Q1 cutoff, Adrián Fernández (KTM) will start the round nineteenth followed by Xavi Artigas (CFMoto), and Ana Carrasco (KTM) will start twenty-eighth.
