Jake Dixon takes his first pole of the season at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya from Aron Canet and Ai Ogura. Championship leader Pedro Acosta was only able to manage ninth place for tomorrow’s grid and his closest challenger in Tony Arbolino was unable to get himself out of the first qualifying session.
The first qualifying session was uneventful with Somkiat Chantra, Sergio Garcia, Filip Salac and Barry Baltus occupying the top four positions for at the end of the session. The early pace setter in this session was Bo Bendsneyder but dropped down to fifth, meaning he will start tomorrow’s race from 19th.
Arbolino was unable to set a time fast enough to progress due to the bike looking unstable on his last lap, meaning he needed to come into the pits and bail out of the lap.
The four riders who came up through Q1 set the initial pace at the start of the second qualifying session with Salac topping the times after the first runs. Following the second set of fast laps Ogura had set the fastest time followed by Albert Arenas and rookie Sergio Garcia.
With over half the session to go, Joe Roberts and Alonso Lopez had not set a representative lap time.
Acosta and Dixon circulated around the track together towards the end of the session, offering each other a tow on alternating fast laps. With the Brit following the Spaniard, Dixon set the fastest time during the qualifying session, a 1:43.983. After swapping places, Acosta was being led around by Dixon, but the Red Bull KTM Ajo rider exceeded track limits, meaning that his lap was deleted.
Canet was also riding around the circuit with a partner, Manuel Gonzalez. This pair helped each other to achieve second and fourth place respectively. On the other hand, Ogura spent most of his time on the track alone but was still able to achieve third place.
That quick time from Arenas set earlier in the session was the quickest time he was able to achieve, and this was good enough to place him in fifth place on tomorrow’s grid.
The highest-placed non-Kalex rider was Fermin Aldeguer in sixth place, followed by his teammate Lopez. Garcia was the highest qualifying rookie in eighth place, being the only rookie to make it through to the second round of qualifying,
Due to having a fast time deleted due to track limits, Acosta only starts in ninth place on the grid tomorrow. Baltus rounds out the top ten on the grid tomorrow.
Sam Lowes was unable to set a lap time fast enough to break into the top ten and is joined by Chantra on the fourth row of the grid. The fifth row of the grid contains Salac, Roberts and Celestino Vietti, who struggled to set fast times around the Spanish circuit.
Tomorrow’s race is shaping up to be an exciting 21 laps with Acosta having to work his way through the field to continue extending his championship lead.
Feature Image Credit: @AsparTeam on X (https://twitter.com/AsparTeam)
| 2023 CATALUNYA MOTO2 GRAND PRIX, BARCELONA – QUALIFYING RESULTS | |||||
| POS | RIDER | NAT | TEAM | BIKE | TIME |
| 1 | Jake Dixon | GBR | Asterius GASGAS Aspar Team | (Kalex) | 1m 44.089s |
| 2 | Aron Canet | SPA | Pons Wegow Los40 | (Kalex) | 1m 44.184s |
| 3 | Ai Ogura | JPN | IDEMITSU Honda Team Asia | (Kalex) | 1m 44.214s |
| 4 | Manuel Gonzalez | SPA | Correos Prepago Yamaha VR46 | (Kalex) | 1m 44.215s |
| 5 | Albert Arenas | SPA | Red Bull KTM Ajo | (Kalex) | 1m 44.270s |
| 6 | Fermín Aldeguer | SPA | Beta Tools SpeedUp | (Boscoscuro) | 1m 44.276s |
| 7 | Alonso Lopez | SPA | Beta Tools SpeedUp | (Boscoscuro) | 1m 44.344s |
| 8 | Sergio Garcia | SPA | Pons Wegow Los40 | (Kalex) | 1m 44.374s |
| 9 | Pedro Acosta | SPA | Red Bull KTM Ajo | (Kalex) | 1m 44.374s |
| 10 | Barry Baltus | BEL | Fieten Olie Racing GP | (Kalex) | 1m 44.419s |
| 11 | Sam Lowes | GBR | Elf Marc VDS Racing Team | (Kalex) | 1m 44.458s |
| 12 | Somkiat Chantra | THA | IDEMITSU Honda Team Asia | (Kalex) | 1m 44.470s |
| 13 | Filip Salac | CZE | QJMOTOR Gresini Moto2 | (Kalex) | 1m 44.490s |
| 14 | Joe Roberts | USA | Italtrans Racing Team | (Kalex) | 1m 44.682s |
| 15 | Celestino Vietti | ITA | Fantic Racing | (Kalex) | 1m 44.838s |
| 16 | Jeremy Alcoba | SPA | QJMOTOR Gresini Moto2 | (Kalex) | 1m 44.906s |
| 17 | Zonta Vd Goorbergh | NED | Fieten Olie Racing GP | (Kalex) | 1m 44.983s |
| 18 | Marcos Ramirez | SPA | OnlyFans American Racing | (Kalex) | 1m 45.202s |
| 19 | Bo Bendsneyder | NED | Pertamina Mandalika SAG Team | (Kalex) | 1m 44.930s |
| 20 | Tony Arbolino | ITA | Elf Marc VDS Racing Team | (Kalex) | 1m 45.021s |
| 21 | Senna Agius | AUS | Liqui Moly Husqvarna Intact GP | (Kalex) | 1m 45.104s |
| 22 | Lukas Tulovic | GER | Liqui Moly Husqvarna Intact GP | (Kalex) | 1m 45.220s |
| 23 | Dennis Foggia | ITA | Italtrans Racing Team | (Kalex) | 1m 45.248s |
| 24 | Borja Gomez | SPA | Fantic Racing | (Kalex) | 1m 45.314s |
| 25 | Rory Skinner | GBR | OnlyFans American Racing | (Kalex) | 1m 45.607s |
| 26 | Mattia Rato | ITA | Pertamina Mandalika SAG Team | (Kalex) | 1m 45.784s |
| 27 | Alberto Surra | ITA | Forward Team | (Forward) | 1m 45.905s |
| 28 | Izan Guevara | SPA | Asterius GASGAS Aspar Team | (Kalex) | 1m 45.950s |
| 29 | Kohta Nozane | JPN | Correos Prepago Yamaha VR46 | (Kalex) | 1m 45.983s |
| 30 | Yeray Ruiz | SPA | Forward Team | (Forward) | 1m 46.321s |