Moto 3
Published on June 16, 2018 • 09:50 by Marc Sériau

Catalan Grand Prix Barcelona Moto3 FP3: Aron Canet on the edge

If, in FP1, the Honda/KTM match appeared balanced, the leader of the world championship Jorge Martin ahead of the returning Nicolo Bulega by 3 tenths, the afternoon was the time of a KTM invasion, Marco Bezzecchi in the lead ahead of 6 other Austrian machines in the Top 10 (See here).

To explain this step forward by Mattighofen, a concerned team manager has of course taken into account the technical developments that appeared at Le Mans (new split airbox and longer exhaust pipes to improve acceleration), but also from a psychological aspect linked to Marco Bezzecchi's performance: if he can win with a KTM, then the other drivers no longer have any excuses...

Weather wise, the official body does not forecast rain for the coming days and, this Saturday morning, the sky is rather clear, with the sun warming the air to 21° and the track to 25°.

We publish our chronometric references as usual, but this time, they are only of anecdotal interest, the route of the Barcelona-Catalunya circuit having been modified 3 times, in 2016 (Saturday), 2017 and 2018, continued to the tragic accident which cost the life of louis salom.

We remember that from the Saturday of the 2016 edition, the drivers took the chicane of the F1 track, then that a new chicane was created for the motorcycles in 2017, which the drivers overwhelmingly rejected. From then on, the initial curve was reinstated in the route for this 2018 edition, however with a clearance zone enlarged by 20 meters thanks to the movement of a grandstand.

On the other hand, the motorcycles definitely no longer take the parabolic curve that constituted turn #10.

This route, as well as its new surface, made it possible to beat the absolute circuit record yesterday:

Barcelona Moto3

 2016 2017

2018
FP1 1'51.729 Antonelli 2'06.206 Fenati 1'49.241 Martin
FP2 1'51.250 Antonelli 1'54.257 Canet 1'49.005 Bezzecchi (new record)
FP3 1'54.641 Navarro 1'53.966 Canet
Qualification 1'54.024 Binder 1'53.368 Martin
Warm Up 1'54.695 Navarro 1'54.397 Martin
Course Navarro, Binder, Bastianini Mir, Fenati, Martin
All time lap record 1'50.137 Bastianini 2015 1'53.368 Martin

Finally, let's mention the wild cards Raul fernandez (KTM, Angel Nieto team) and Vicente Perez (KTM, Reale Avintia Academy), both from the Moto3 FIM CEV Junior World Championship, ranked 1st and 10th respectively, who will try to make us forget the tragedy that occurred on this Catalan route not even a week ago...

After the first round, Andrea Migno registered the provisional reference in 1'50.514, a time which he will drop to 1'49.765 on the next pass before being dethroned by George Martin who achieves 1'49.071 on his 5th pass, at the cost of an attack which will then result in a little heat.

Despite worn tires, George Martin is already close to yesterday's best time while his main opponent, Marco Bezzecchi, must be content with a provisional 20th position almost 2 seconds behind, at the end of a first run is dominated by the following hierarchy: Martin, Migno, Canet, Antonelli, Masaki, Bastianini, Sasaki, Bulega, Norrodin and Oettl.

Adam Norrodin inaugurates the list of falls of the day, without seriousness, at turn 5.

On resumption, Marco Bezzecchi restores logic by positioning itself 3rd, 1/2 second behind a Jorge Martin who suffered a spectacular highside at turn 2. The Spanish driver got up with a slight limp.

Enea Bastianini is temporarily positioned 2nd, thus somewhat livening up this very calm second run.

Nicholas Bulega inaugurates the last part of the session by taking 2nd place 2/10 behind Jorge Martin.

Nicolo Antonelli falls at turn 2 and gets up stunned. He is followed a few moments later by Tony Arbolino at turn 4 and Makar Yurchenko at turn 5.

Meanwhile, Kasuki Sasaki came close to the best time of the session by 2 hundredths while the normal time had expired.

kick of Fabio DiGiannantonio in his last turn

In extremis, Aron canet achieves the best time in 1'49.002.