Celestino Vietti took his first pole since the third round of the season followed by championship leader Pedro Acosta and Manuel Gonzalez. Acosta’s closest championship rival, Tony Arbolino, was only able to qualify in ninth place and will need to make up places in the race tomorrow to close the championship gap.
Arbolino had to go through the first round of qualifying once again after his combined practice time was not fast enough for him to be automatically placed into the second session. Bo Bendsneyder finished the first qualifying session in first place, a position he held after the first set of flying laps.
An important #Moto2 Q1 session for the likes of @TonyArbolino 👀
Let's find out who'll those 4 Q2 places⏱️#SanMarinoGP 🇸🇲 pic.twitter.com/RlDlRl1OA9
— MotoGP™🏁 (@MotoGP) September 9, 2023
Gonzalez also went through the first qualifying session and finished just behind Arbolino in third. The final rider to go through was Zonta van der Goorbergh.
The second qualifying session got underway without any issues and following the first flying laps Gonzalez was at the top of the timesheet followed by Vietti and Mattia Pasini. Jake Dixon and Acosta only ran installation laps in the first half of the session, meaning that they did not have a representative lap time and they sat towards the bottom of the times.
Ai Ogura had been quick all throughout the weekend and all eyes had been on the Japanese rider. Midway through the session, he sat at tenth on the timesheet.
Sam Lowes set a good time to bring himself up to fourth place but was dropped down the order when Acosta put in the fastest time of the session, 0.133 seconds faster than Gonzaez.
Joe Roberts also dropped Lowes down the leaderboard when he went into fourth place.
After setting a fast time at the start of the session, Pasini crashed causing yellow flags in the second sector. This meant that many laps were cancelled including a fast time for Acosta. Dixon also had a lap time deleted, but this was due to a track limits warning.
On the following lap, Alonso Lopez crashed causing another yellow flag, this time in sectors two and three. This meant that Dixon and Vietti, amongst other riders, had their times deleted. Acosta did improve on his lap time, but this was also deleted due to the yellow flag.
As the chequered flag flew, Aron Canet came across the line to put his bike into fourth place. He was visibly pleased with the lap time and will be starting the race at the head of the second row.
Vietti came across the line and went to the top of the timesheet by 8 hundredths of a second ahead of Acosta. The Spaniard was on course to set a fast lap time but encountered traffic during his final lap and was unable to improve on his time. Gonzalez joins Vietti and Acosta on the front row.
He was NOT giving that one up! 👏
Celestino Vietti goes TOP as @37_pedroacosta slows down! 👀#SanMarinoGP 🇸🇲 pic.twitter.com/moY8ocFB9C
— MotoGP™🏁 (@MotoGP) September 9, 2023
After crashing earlier in the session, Pasini and Lopez join Canet on the second row. Roberts heads up the third row with Sam Lowes and Arbolino. Filip Salac rounds out the top ten.
Dixon crashed towards the end of the session and was only able to set a time fast enough to qualify in fourteenth place.
Feature Image Credit: Fantic Racing
| 2023 SAN MARINO MOTO2 GRAND PRIX, MISANO – QUALIFYING RESULTS | |||||
| POS | RIDER | NAT | TEAM | BIKE | TIME |
| 1 | Celestino Vietti | ITA | Fantic Racing | (Kalex) | 1m 36.201s |
| 2 | Pedro Acosta | SPA | Red Bull KTM Ajo | (Kalex) | 1m 36.281s |
| 3 | Manuel Gonzalez | SPA | Correos Prepago Yamaha VR46 | (Kalex) | 1m 36.421s |
| 4 | Aron Canet | SPA | Pons Wegow Los40 | (Kalex) | 1m 36.424s |
| 5 | Mattia Pasini | ITA | Fieten Olie Racing GP | (Kalex) | 1m 36.484s |
| 6 | Alonso Lopez | SPA | +Ego SpeedUp | (Boscoscuro) | 1m 36.487s |
| 7 | Joe Roberts | USA | Italtrans Racing Team | (Kalex) | 1m 36.534s |
| 8 | Sam Lowes | GBR | Elf Marc VDS Racing Team | (Kalex) | 1m 36.541s |
| 9 | Tony Arbolino | ITA | Elf Marc VDS Racing Team | (Kalex) | 1m 36.559s |
| 10 | Filip Salac | CZE | QJMOTOR Gresini Moto2 | (Kalex) | 1m 36.639s |
| 11 | Somkiat Chantra | THA | IDEMITSU Honda Team Asia | (Kalex) | 1m 36.649s |
| 12 | Zonta Vd Goorbergh | NED | Fieten Olie Racing GP | (Kalex) | 1m 36.722s |
| 13 | Ai Ogura | JPN | IDEMITSU Honda Team Asia | (Kalex) | 1m 36.816s |
| 14 | Jake Dixon | GBR | Inde GASGAS Aspar Team | (Kalex) | 1m 36.889s |
| 15 | Bo Bendsneyder | NED | Pertamina Mandalika SAG Team | (Kalex) | 1m 36.919s |
| 16 | Marcos Ramirez | SPA | OnlyFans American Racing | (Kalex) | 1m 37.207s |
| 17 | Barry Baltus | BEL | Fieten Olie Rac | (Kalex) | 1m 37.215s |
| 18 | Jeremy Alcoba | SPA | QJMOTOR Gresini Moto2 | (Kalex) | 1m 37.245s |
| 19 | Izan Guevara | SPA | Inde GASGAS Aspar Team | (Kalex) | 1m 36.859s |
| 20 | Senna Agius | AUS | Liqui Moly Husqvarna Intact GP | (Kalex) | 1m 36.967s |
| 21 | Fermín Aldeguer | SPA | +Ego SpeedUp | (Boscoscuro) | 1m 36.992s |
| 22 | Sergio Garcia | SPA | Pons Wegow Los40 | (Kalex) | 1m 37.015s |
| 23 | Dennis Foggia | ITA | Italtrans Racing Team | (Kalex) | 1m 37.051s |
| 24 | Alberto Surra | ITA | Forward Team | (Forward) | 1m 37.415s |
| 25 | Lukas Tulovic | GER | Liqui Moly Husqvarna Intact GP | (Kalex) | 1m 37.621s |
| 26 | Rory Skinner | GBR | OnlyFans American Racing | (Kalex) | 1m 37.701s |
| 27 | Kohta Nozane | JPN | Correos Prepago Yamaha VR46 | (Kalex) | 1m 37.867s |
| 28 | Borja Gomez | SPA | Fantic Racing | (Kalex) | 1m 37.917s |
| 29 | Sean Dylan Kelly | USA | Forward Team | (Forward) | 1m 37.923s |
| 30 | Taiga Hada | JPN | Pertamina Mandalika SAG Team | (Kalex) | 1m 38.126s |