Moto3 Losail Qatar FP3: Raul Fernández for butter…

More than the times already very close to the track record achieved by the Moto3 yesterday during this first day of free practice for the Qatar Grand Prix, the notable fact is above all the renewed form of the KTMs against the Hondas who had completely dominated the tests carried out on the same Losail track at the start of the week.

Judge for yourself: while the latter had seen no less than 8 Hondas prance in the lead, yesterday there were 6 KTMs (or Husqvarnas) in the Top 10, including 2 in the lead!

It is certainly still too early to be able to think that this is a definitive trend, but the turnaround is beautiful, and can be credited to an Austrian strategy consisting of not using 2020 engines during IRTA tests. …

Red Bull KTM team rider Ajo, Raul Fernández, thus found himself at the top of the ranking Friday evening, only one hundredth of the track record, ahead of Darryn binder, spearhead of the CIP–Green Power teamAlain Bronec.

From then on, we will approach this 3-minute FP40 with an eye on this Europe/Japan clash, with Raul Fernandez (KTM, Red Bull KTM Ajo), Darryn Binder (KTM, CIP–Green Power), Kaito Toba (Honda, Red Bull KTM Ajo), Andrea Migno (KTM, Sky Racing Team VR46), Roman Fenati (Husqvarna, Sterilgarda Max Racing Team) and Deniz Oncu (KTM, Red Bull KTM Tech3) in the first camp, facing the very fast Sergio Garcia (Honda, Estrella Galicia 0,0), Ai Ogura (Honda, Honda Team Asia), Tony Arbolino (Honda, Rivacold Snipers Team) and Jaume Masia (Honda, Leopard Racing) in the second, questioning the non-presence of John mcphee (Honda, Petronas Sprinta Racing), Tatsuki suzuki (Honda, SIC58 Squadra Corse) and gabriel rodrigo (Honda, Kömmerling Gresini Moto3) in the Top 10…

Here are the references available at the time when the 31 pilots are preparing in the boxes, the conditions remain perfect, with an immaculate sky, a wind which like yesterday tends to pick up, and temperatures of 27° in the air and 41° on the ground:

Moto3 Losail Qatar™	2019	2020
FP1	2'05.917 Romano Fenati	2'05.407 Sergio Garcia
FP2	2'04.561 Arón Canet	2'04.577 Raul Fernández
FP3	2'06.561 Vicente Pérez	2'05.465 Raul Fernández
Q1	2'06.689 Celestino Vietti
Q2	2'05.883 Arón Canet
warm up	2'06.097 Arón Canet
Course	Toba, Dalla Porta, Canet
All time lap record	2'04.561 Arón Canet 2019

 

Nobody wastes time at the opening of the track and alone Darryn binder (KTM, CIP–Green Power) remains in his box. The South African driver will take advantage of this session to assess whether the soft tire will last the duration of the race...

Tatsuki suzuki (Honda, SIC58 Squadra Corse) established the first reference of the day in 2'06.081 in his second flying lap, just before returning to his box. In 15th position overall, the Japanese driver is currently still not pre-qualified for Q2.

Maximilian Kofler (KTM, CIP–Green Power) suffered a minor fall in turn #10 shortly before the end of the first run.

 

 

Quite unusual, the stop is prolonged and the track sees very little activity for many minutes,…

However, this allows us to observe the very provisional hierarchy composed of Tatsuki suzuki (Honda, SIC58 Squadra Corse), 3 tenths ahead Albert Arenas (KTM, Aspar Team), Dennis Foggia (Honda, Leopard Racing), Alonso lopez (Husqvarna, Sterilgarda Max Racing Team) and an astonishing Stefano Nepa (KTM, Aspar Team) which we are not used to seeing in such good shape.

On resumption, Filip Salac (Honda, Rivacold Snipers Team) falls without gravity at turn #6 while the sectors start to light up red for many drivers.

 

 

Raul Fernandez (KTM, Red Bull KTM Ajo) took command in 2'06.051 before Ai Ogura (Honda, Honda Team Asia) lowers the provisional benchmark to 2'05.936.

After achieving the best first partial, Kaito Toba (Honda, Red Bull KTM Ajo) makes a minor mistake at turn #5 when Raul fernandez recorded a 2'05.465.

10 minutes before the end of the session, the drivers return to their box one last time, before the final confrontation which will definitively determine the 14 pre-qualified for Q2.

There are barely 4 minutes left when the drivers return to the track, which only allows them one or two laps to attempt a final time while taking advantage of the aspirations.

As usual, no one really wants to lead the peloton and everyone turns around to encourage others to ride. Finally, it is John mcphee (Honda, Petronas Sprinta Racing) who is dedicated but, obviously, he does not take advantage of it and, in the end, the session turns out to be slower than FP2.

 

 

The 14 pre-qualified for Q2 are therefore the same as last night (see combined ranking below).

 

Moto3 Losail Qatar FP3: times

Moto3 Losail Qatar FP1/FP2/FP3: times

Credit rankings: MotoGP.com