Honda Team Asia rider Ai Ogura will start tomorrow’s Moto3 race from pole position for the first time in his career.

Following on from the first qualifying session in which Tony Arbolino headed the charge into Q2, followed by the Max Racing Team pair of Romano Fenati and Alonso Lopez. Rounding out the top 4 was Riccardo Rossi, who made his first appearance in the second qualifying session.

A last attempt for Ai Ogura, snatched pole position from the Argentine, Gabriel Rodrigo by a mere +0.016. The 1’42:403 set by the poleman was enough to seal pole position, with last year’s victor, Suzuki, rounding out the front row.

Albert Arenas, the points leader, is in a lowly 13th, his worst qualifying of the season as a fall from Alonso Lopez in the final minutes of Qualifying 2, halted attempts for an improvement.

John McPhee, of the PETRONAS Sepang Racing Team squad, took a fall on his second flying lap of the session and was unable to improve after being caught in traffic on his final timed attempt.

Heading the second row is Sky Racing Team’s Andrea Migno, at the home Grand Prix of both the team and himself. They will be hopeful of repeating success from the Austrian GP, in which Italian protégé Celestino Vietti took victory.

Romano Fenati, who came through Qualifying 1, will begin his home Grand Prix in fifth with Raul Fernandez, who took a double pole position at the Czech and Austrian rounds and was poised for pole position but lost crucial time in the final sector after catching a gaggle of bikes, and will round off the second row.

Row three is headed by Gresini Racing’s Jeremy Alcoba followed by Tony Arbolino who came through Qualifying One, rounding off the 3rd row is Filip Salac.

The Moto3 action on Sunday is set to begin with Warm Up from 08:40 with racing action to begin at 11:00 for 23 laps of racing at the Rimini-based circuit, all times are local.

Featured image credit: MotoGP.com