Gabriel Rodrigo takes pole position for the Moto3 World Championship at the Austrian Circuit

The Moto3 World Championship has been the first to hit the track at the Austrian Circuit to contest the battle for pole position at the Styrian round, so there is maximum anticipation to see the grid of the small-bike category ahead of tomorrow’s race.

First, the riders who failed to make it into Q2 went out to take part in Q1, fighting for the four front-row spots that grant access to Q2. Masia, Antonelli, Oncu and Binder managed to advance to the next official practice session. Q1 ended with a very complicated moment, as Masia crashed, badly damaging his bike. He got back up and managed to restart it, despite having no fairing, no gloves, and an extreme situation with the machine. The worst part came when the oil from that Moto3 bike spilled onto part of the track and caused several crashes, while he made his way to the pit box to try to repair the bike and move on to Q2. The stewards will surely sanction Masia’s behavior.

And then came the moment of the category’s Q2, in which we did not see Masia, since the stewards decided not to let him out onto the track for this official practice session as a penalty for *irresponsible riding during Q1*. That was the reason behind the suspension of his participation.

With 5 minutes remaining, we saw Rodri as the fastest, but with all the riders riding slowly and cautiously given the state of the track, with some scares and several riders going off track, such as Raúl Fernández.

Finally, Rodrigo took the first pole position of the season, setting a time of 1:36.470 on the last lap of the Austrian track, while Raúl Fernández took second place, just 0.012s behind the leader, so the competition is very close. The top 10 was completed with Suzuki 3rd, Arbolino 4th, Vietti 5th, Mcphee 6th, Foggia 7th, Ogura 8th, Arenas 9th and Binder 10th.

On to the race.