Jonas Folger takes Moto3 pole in Valencia

The World Motorcycle Championship has started the official qualifying session with the Moto3 riders, with the riders of the smallest category the first to contest the battle for pole position. The poleman for the Valencia Grand Prix is Jonas Folger, with a lap time of 1:41.263.

Great pole for the German, who has been delighted since switching to Team Aspar, so another first place for the 94 who will start tomorrow from the front row after overtaking Luis Salom on the last lap, leaving the Spaniard once again with the bitter taste of missing out on his first world championship pole.

So Folger will start first, followed by Miguel Oliveira who stayed very close to the German, just 0.053s behind, setting this time after the Team Aspar rider, while Luis Salom completed the front row of the grid. Cortese, the reigning Moto3 world champion, will start from 4th position on the second row, and the top 10 is completed by Maverick Viñales in 5th, Vázquez 6th, Kent 7th, Antonelli 8th, Rossi 9th, and Tonucci 10th. Mack had problems and could not go out in the final minutes; it seems the FTR Honda had some issue, and we will see what he can do tomorrow.

It was an intense session, especially in the last 5 minutes, when Folger and Oliveira fought in a final attempt to beat Salom, while Salom did not make the most of his good tyres and watched them overtake him at the last moment, once again denying him his first world championship pole.

As for the other Spanish riders, Márquez finished 12th, Martín 13th, Faubel 16th, Rins 18th, Guevara 21st, I. Viñales 23rd and Rodríguez 30th.

Tomorrow promises an exciting day for Moto3: Salom and Viñales are fighting for the runner-up spot in the championship, while Rins and Fenati battle for the rookie of the year title, so there is no doubt it will be of maximum interest. Regarding the crashes in this official practice session, we saw Fenati and Guevara go down, fortunately without consequences.

On to the race.

Photo | MotoGP Official website