Jaume Masia will start from the fifth row of the grid, with Dani Holgado in sixth

In Saturday qualifying for the Catalan Grand Prix, Dani Holgado and Jaume Masia had their grid positions established for the latest round of the Moto3 World Championship. Masia suffered a crash late on that kept him in 14th position, whilst teammate Holgado struggled to find his best feeling and took 17th.

The Red Bull KTM Ajo duo had a third and final Free Practice session at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya in the morning. Masia and Holgado quickly upped their pace from Friday, with the help of more favourable track conditions than the previous day, and both made the cut to go straight into Q2. Holgado was fourth overall with a time of 1:48.056, Masia fifth with a 1:48.061.

The notable increase in track temperature made it difficult for the Red Bull KTM Ajo riders to work in Q2. In the final stretch of the session, Masia and Holgado made another attempt to improve their times and get the best possible positions on the grid. Masia crashed on the penultimate corner, when on his hot lap, meaning his best time remained a 1:49.288, achieved on his third attempt of seven. He will start from 14th. Holgado lowered his time on his last lap, clocking a 1:49.407 that puts him 17th.

The Moto3 Catalan Grand Prix will take place on Sunday at 11:00 AM local time.

Results (Qualifying)
1. Dennis Foggia (Honda) 1:48.290
2. Deniz Öncü (KTM) 1:48.428 +0.138
3. Izan Guevara (GasGas) 1:48.537 +0.247
4. Lorenzo Fellon (Honda) 1:48.574 +0.284
5. Ryusei Yamanaka (KTM) 1:48.693 +0.403
14. Jaume Masia  (Red Bull KTM Ajo) 1:49.288 +0.998
17. Dani Holgado (Red Bull KTM Ajo) 1:49.407 +1.117

#5 JAUME MASIA 

“I lost the front end on the penultimate corner and I went down, but I’m perfectly fine and looking forward to the race. The higher up we are on the grid, the better, especially because of the number of riders that will be together on the first few laps. I feel strong and I’m happy with the pace we have. I made a mistake, but I’ll take the positive away from it. This is a circuit where there is a lot of slipstreaming on the straight, but we’re strong under braking and we’re confident of getting a good result.”

#96 DANI HOLGADO

“FP3 was quite positive, because we were very fast. Qualifying didn’t go as we had expected, because I wanted to try to get onto the second or third row and be as close as possible to the fastest riders. Qualifying sessions are a bit crazy in this class, and different from what I am used to. You have to keep adapting to this new way of doing things, but nevertheless I’m happy with the job that we did. I know that I have a bike able to fight for victory tomorrow. There are some details to be fine-tuned, but tomorrow we will fight in the race.”