Source: Ajo Motorsport.

In the Moto3 QP at the Gran Premio Generali de la Comunitat Valenciana on Saturday afternoon Niccolo Antonelli took pole, with Jack Miller and Alex Marquez set to join him on the front row.

Having shown good pace on Friday Antonelli (Junior Team GO&FUN) cashed in to secure his first ever Grand Prix pole, with a new pole record time at Valencia of 1m39.183.

Crucially, behind the Italian on the front row title rivals Miller (Red Bull KTM Ajo) and Marquez (Estrella Galicia 0,0) qualified in second and third places respectively.

Miller trailed Antonelli by just 0.068s whilst Marquez was 0.373s off pole and suffered a light crash in the session.

“I’m happy with how everything went today,” Miller said. “The whole team have done a great job as the bike is working excellently, so we have to be very satisfied. I’m excited to start my last race in Moto3 from the front row.

“We’ve been working hard all weekend and I think we have a very good pace for the race, especially with worn tyres. The times we have set are also really good. We are calm, not overconfident, because in a race you never know what will happen and we feel ready. Let’s cross our fingers for tomorrow.”

On row two Isaac Viñales (Calvo Team) will line up ahead of Marquez’s teammate Alex Rins (Estrella Galicia 0,0) and Miller’s colleague Karel Hanika (Red Bull KTM Ajo) – ahead of what will be another intriguing battle on Sunday.

Row three comprises Niklas Ajo (Avant Tecno Husqvarna Ajo), John McPhee (SaxoPrint-RTG) and Efren Vazquez (SaxoPrint-RTG), with Juanfran Guevara (Mapfre Aspar Team Moto3) at the head of row four.

Marquez took a small fall with 15 minutes to go, though both he and the bike were unaffected. Soon after Enea Bastianini (Junior Team GO&FUN Gresini) fell at turn four, losing the front end of his KTM.

Wildcards Maria Herrera (Junior Team Estrella Galicia 0,0) and Albert Arenas (Calvo Team) had a coming together in the closing stages, resulting in Herrera being stretchered away. Both were taken to the medical centre for check ups but neither were seriously hurt.

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