Diogo Moreira celebrates his first Moto3 pole of the season in Indonesia – Jaume Masia and David Alonso on row one – World Championship chasers on rows three and four
First pole of the season for Diogo Moreira: The KTM rider secured the narrow fastest time in Moto3 qualifying in Indonesia with 1’39.085 ahead of World Championship leader Jaume Masia (Honda). David Alonso (GasGas) was third
In the first qualifying section, four riders initially fought their way into the next round. In addition to Q1 leader Taiyo Furusato (Honda), Collin Veijer (Husqvarna), Adrian Fernandez (Honda) and Josh Whatley (Honda) moved into Q2 retrospectively.
Fernandez replaces Tatsuki Suzuki at Leopard Racing from this race weekend for the remainder of the current season. The team and the Japanese rider have parted ways early.
Suzuki’s former teammate and world championship leader Masia set out in Q2 to claim his fourth pole position in a row. After the first run, however, the Honda rider was only in eleventh position, while Moreira led the standings.
All change in the top 10! @jaume_masia jumps to 2nd place! IndonesianGP pic.twitter.com/1TduevybPi
– MotoGP™ (@MotoGP) October 14, 2023
As the second run began, Masia then improved to second. However, it was not enough to knock Moreira off the top spot. Masia was able to improve in the last run, but in the end he was four hundredths behind. Alonso was again 0.225 seconds behind in third place.
Veijer qualified fourth after his Q1 sweep. He shares the second row with Deniz Öncü (KTM) and Furusato. Masia’s World Championship rival Daniel Holgado will start tomorrow’s race from seventh place. Behind him are Matteo Bertelle (Honda), Stefano Nepa (KTM) and David Munoz (KTM).
Ayumu Sasaki (Husqvarna), currently Masia’s closest rival in the World Championship, finished eleventh in qualifying, followed by Ivan Ortola (KTM) and Joel Kelso (CFMoto). Fernandez was 14th, with wildcard starter Arbi Aditama (Honda) 15th on the grid.
A huge shame for @ScottOgden19 after qualifying directly into Q2!
He highsided out of Turn 4. Hopefully he’ll be all OK to go for tomorrow IndonesianGP pic.twitter.com/Nx7fBFzJuM
– MotoGP™ (@MotoGP) October 14, 2023
Scott Ogden (Honda) caused a scare in the closing stages of Q2 when he highsided off at turn 4. As a result, he was unable to finish higher than 17th.
