KTM rider Diogo Moreira celebrates his maiden pole at Silverstone – Izan Guevara and Ryusei Yamanaka on row one – World Championship leader Sergio Garcia eleventh on the grid
Diogo Moreira stormed to his first pole position in the World Championship in Moto3 qualifying for the British Grand Prix. The KTM rookie set the fastest time of 2’10.951, narrowly beating Izan Guevara (GasGas) and teammate Ryusei Yamanaka.
Already in the first qualifying section it was all about everything for the World Championship leader Sergio Garcia. The GasGas rider had missed out on direct entry into Q2 and had to fight with 15 other riders for the top four places in Q1 in order to progress retrospectively.
In the end, Garcia made it through to the next round in third place in the session along with Riccardo Rossi (Honda), Xavier Artigas (CFMoto) and Taiyo Furusato (Honda).
The overall World Championship leader then had nothing to do with the fight for pole. With a gap of 0.619 seconds to the best time, Garcia missed the top 10 and finished eleventh, while rookie Moreira was the only one to stay under 2:11 minutes.
POLE POSITION for Moreira!
The first Brazilian pole position in the lightweight class EVER! BritishGP pic.twitter.com/vmxrQZSKWU
– MotoGP™ (@MotoGP) August 6, 2022
Garcia’s teammate and World Championship rival Guevara was just 68 thousandths off the pole time. Yamanaka was not far behind either, 78 thousandths off the pace. Rossi finished fourth after his Q1 sweep and leads the second row ahead of Stefano Nepa and Deniz Öncü (both KTM).
Leopard racers Dennis Foggia and Tatsuki Suzuki secured seventh and eighth on the grid. Behind them lined up the Husqvarna duo with Ayumu Sasaki and John McPhee.