Jaume Masia continues his spectacular form with pole position in Doha.

Red Bull KTM Ajo had another good day, with Jaume Masia setting a great lap to get pole position. He gained a huge amount of time in the final sector to fly to the top of the timing screen. His teammate Pedro Acosta finished the session in 9th, but will start from pitlane behind Sergio Garcia due to his FP2 penalty.

Last week’s winner joined the back of a very fast group of riders to get the perfect tow down the front straight to claim his first pole position of the season.

Filip Salac led the queue of riders from pitlane to begin Q1, as the sun set in the distance and the floodlights started to reflect off the fairings. The track was very dusty due to the earlier sandstorm, adding very tricky conditions for the already tense qualifying sessions.

Andrea Migno set the early pace and advanced to Q2 after finishing Q1 top of the timesheet. He stayed out of trouble and did it all on his own. Dennis Foggia came out and went straight back in the pits at the beginning of the session. He returned to the track with 6 minutes to go and advanced to Q2, finishing Q1 in 2nd position. His teammate, Xavier Artigas also advanced from Q1 in 3rd. Fastest man in FP3, Swiss rider Jason Dupasquier finished Q1 in 4th. Red Bull KTM Tech 3 rider Deniz Oncu fell before he managed to set a lap, and so is at the back of the queue starting from pit lane for tomorrow’s race.

Q2 was a two-in-one qualifying session. One to decide the grid, and one to decide the order of the squad starting from pitlane. Deniz Oncu and Ricardo Rossi are already at the back of that queue.

GASGAS Gaviota Aspar Team‘s Sergio Garcia qualified 2nd, but will be taken out of the grid and put into pitlane as well, promoting Indonesian Racing Gresini riders Jeremy Alcoba to second – just in front of Argentinian Gabriel Rodrigo in 3rd. He had a close shave with Ryusei Yamanaka early on, as he came out of Turn 15 a little bit too close to the Japanese rider and brushed the exhaust of the CarXpert PrustelGP KTM.

The Petronas Sprinta Racing riders also worked together and followed one other around the sandy circuit. Last week’s pole man, Darryn Binder, started the session very slowly, but was promoted to the second row of the grid in 6th – one position ahead of teammate John McPhee on the third row in 7th, and rookie Izan Guevara in 8th. Despite leading the board following the three Practice sessions, Binder failed to conquer Qualifying for a second week.

Tatsuki Suzuki seems to be getting back to his old self, qualifying 4th just in front of Q1-man Andrea Migno in 5th.
Jason Dupasquier ended up in the top 10. He originally qualified 11th, but due to the various penalties he has been promoted to 9th.

Another promising start will be that of Xavier Artigas, who also benefitted from the numerous penalties across the board. While originally qualifying in 16th place, the rookie has boosted to P12 for tomorrow’s race, closing out the fourth row behind Kaito Toba and Niccolo Antonelli.

With strong riders starting from pitlane and enthusiastic rookies at the sharp end, we are in for a quite special race tomorrow. Who do you have for the win?

The Moto3 Race will begin at 17:00 Local Time (GMT +3).

Feature Image: MotoGP.com