The Red Bull KTM Ajo Moto3 rider is fastest in Free Practice and qualifies first on the grid for tomorrow’s race. Kaito Toba will occupy the 19th position.

Red Bull KTM Ajo Moto3 and Raul Fernandez confirmed their great pace at the Aragon Grand Prix on Saturday, achieving their fourth pole position of the 2020 season. This result means that tomorrow the Spaniard will start from the front row of the grid for the seventh time this year. In addition, he was also the quickest competitor on the combined Free Practice timesheets. Kaito Toba will start the 11th round of the World Championship from Row 7, in 19th place, after suffering a heavy crash in FP3.

FP3 started an hour later than usual, to try to combat the low temperatures that the Moto3 riders had to face yesterday morning. Fernandez dedicated his 14 laps in the session to fine-tune his setup for Sunday’s race. The Spaniard clocked a 1:59.362 that earned him sixth position. Toba was enjoying a solid practice when, halfway through, he suffered a big crash at Turn 2. The Japanese was unable to go back out on track and finished 25th – 2:01.350.

With the fastest time overall from Free Practice, Fernandez continued the Moto3 class’ only perfect record of qualifying directly for Q2. In that session, he dominated proceedings, leading the way from start to finish with a hot lap of 1:57.681. The pole position was his fourth of both the season and his career. Toba had to go through Q1 and he finished fifth with a time of 1:59.120, just 4 thousandths off making the cut for Qualifying 2. He will take off from 19th on the grid tomorrow, with a place on the seventh row.

The 19-lap Moto3 Aragon Grand Prix will take place at 12 pm, an hour later than the regular schedule.

Results – QP
1. Raul Fernandez (Red Bull KTM Ajo) 1:57.681
2. Celestino Vietti (KTM) 1:57.740 +0.059
3. Albert Arenas (KTM) 1:58.191 +0.510
4. Alonso Lopez (Husqvarna) 1:58.212 +0.531
5. Tatsuki Suzuki (Honda) 1:58.268 +0.587
19. Kaito Toba (Red Bull KTM Ajo) 1:59.120 (Q1 time)

25 RAUL FERNANDEZ

“We achieved our main objective: to start on the front row. Tomorrow we have to finish the job with a good result, something for which we are working at every Grand Prix. We will try to make it a fast and clean race with a small group. We will push hard and give our 100%.”

27 KAITO TOBA

“It was a tough day for me, as I made a small mistake in FP3 and, as a consequence, I suffered a heavy crash. In Q1, I tried to give everything I had to get into Q2, but after a crash it is always difficult to push at 100% again. Tomorrow we will start from far back, but we will work hard to try to climb as many positions as possible in the race.”