Moto2 Malaysia Qualifying: Five years later, Jorge Navarro back on pole

Moto2 heads to the Sepang circuit for the penultimate round of its 2024 season. The title is now decided, as Ai Ogura secured the world crown in Thailand, leaving Buriram with a lead of over fifty points over his closest challenger, Aron Canet. The stakes are high, however, as the latter is battling for the vice-world champion title with some of the top riders. After a hard-fought test sessions, it is time for the Moto2 riders to take part in the Qualifications in Malaysia.

Here is a table that summarizes the known facts :

Moto2™ Malaysia, Sepang	2023	2024
FP	2'06.183 Fermin Adleguer	2'06.255 Jake Dixon
P1	2'06.293 Ai Ogura	2'05.576 Manuel Gonzalez
P2	2'05.316 Fermin Aldeguer	2'04.775 Albert Arenas
Q1	2'05.724 Tony Arbolino	2'05.202 Somkiat Chantra
Q2	2'05.288 Fermin Aldeguer
Course	Aldeguer, Acosta, Ramirez (See here)
All time lap record	2'04.769 Brad Binder (2019)

Qualification 1:

While Sergio Garcia and Alonso Lopez failed to make it to Q2 at the end of P2, they did not stand out so much from the rest at the start of Q1. On the contrary, it was Filip Salac and Barry Baltus who took the two leading positions after the first attempts. The Marc VDS driver then turned in 2:05.286, two tenths ahead of the Belgian.

Garcia and Lopez occupy 4th and 5th place, behind Senna Agius. The top 5 is then separated by three tenths. But they are not the only ones who can claim a place in Q2, and Somkiat Chantra quickly makes it clear to them, by taking control of the session (2:05.202) at the start of the second round of timed laps.

The Thai driver made the right choice, as a crash between local wildcards Khairul Idham Pawi and Helmi Azman of the Petronas MIE Racing RW team prevented the other drivers from improving.

Alonso Lopez and Sergio Garcia find themselves trapped, while Salac, Baltus and Agius move on to Q2.

Qualification 2:

The strong men of the weekend did not miss the meeting in Q2, and Marcos Ramirez, Albert Arenas and Deniz Öncü went directly under Brad Binder's lap record on their first timed lap. Albert Arenas had come close to doing so in P2, and the mark set by the South African in 2019 has therefore fallen.

They will not be the only ones to do so during this session, however, as other candidates for pole position are revealed in this Q2. This is notably the case of Jorge Navarro, who came to claim the lead in the standings with just under a minute to go.

At the same time, Jake Dixon suffered another crash, this time at Turn 8, and was able to abandon his hopes of a front row position. Yellow flags then came out in sectors 2 and 3, preventing many riders from improving.

Those who succeed will not disturb the American Racing Team riders who take a double! Jorge Navarro thus takes his first pole position in Moto2 since 2019, while he replaces Joe Roberts, still injured in the hand. Behind him, on the front row, his garage neighbor, Marcos Ramírez, and Celestino Vietti.

Aron Canet's run of good qualifying finishes in Malaysia. The Spaniard, who has been struggling since the start of the weekend, is no better than 13th. He at least has the merit of having made a spectacular save at the end of Q2! World champion Ai Ogura is seventh.

Moto2 Malaysian GP Q2 results at Sepang:

Classification credit: MotoGP.com

Moto2 Malaysia Qualifying