The Japanese Husqvarna rider beat Álex Márquez’s mark from 2014 after lapping in 1:35.854
Izan Guevara will start seventh, while his rival Foggia will start from twelfth place
The Japanese Ayumu Sasaki (Husqvarna) starred in the ‘pole position‘ for him Australian Grand Prix of Moto3 and established a new absolute record for the Phillip Island circuit for the category by being the fastest in the official classification for the eighteenth round of the motorcycling world championship. Sasaki, with a time of 1:35.854, broke the absolute record of the category that the Spanish Alex Márquez (Honda) had since 2014 with a record of 1:36.050.
The riders from the first classification were already able to benefit from the good conditions of the asphalt to try to pass to the second, and among the most seasoned from the beginning, was the Japanese Taiyo Furusato (Honda), who immediately took the lead of the time table (1:37.356 on his third lap), followed by the British Scott Ogden (Honda) just a tenth of a second, and the situation did not change much throughout the session. But in the final stretch everything changed and the British John McPhee (Husqvarna) climbed to the first position, followed by the Spaniards David Muñoz (KTM) and Carlos Tatay (CFMoto), with the Japanese Furusato in fourth place.
Fully involved in the second classification, the start of the championship leader, the Spanish Izan Guevara (GasGas) did not wait too long and, as usual, he tried to do it alone, although the also Spanish Iván immediately joined his wheel Ortolá (KTM), while the rest of the riders waited on their bikes at the doors of their respective workshops for the right moment to leave. The third to start was the British McPhee, the fastest in Q1 and just a few seconds later the rest of the drivers did, when Guevara and Ortolá completed their first lap. In the second lap Izan Guevara already lapped in 1:37.148 with a hard rear tire compound that he later changed to a softer one, but the rest of the competitors were already on the track looking for their first fastest lap and Ayumu Sasaki (Husqvarna) wasted no time to lead the table (1:35.854), almost a second ahead of the Spaniards Jaume Masiá (KTM) and David Muñoz (KTM). Another who also tried to pull up the time table but ended up on the ground was the Japanese Tatsuki Suzuki (Honda), who couldn’t even get a qualifying time and finished last in qualifying because his bike was badly damaged in the mishap. and could not continue.
On the track, Ayumu Sasaki remained firm in first place while his rivals made an effort to try to lower the new circuit record set by the Japanese and the one who came closest to him was the Spaniard Sergio García Dols (GasGas), who He put 187 thousandths of a second, with Carlos Tatay in third place, while in that last minute the world leader was in a worrying thirteenth position, more than a second behind the leader of the classification. And to a certain extent he achieved his objective, because although he dragged several rivals behind him, Izan Guevara managed to climb to seventh position, which means the third line of the starting formation, together with the Turkish Deniz öncü (KTM) and the also Spanish Jaume Masiá, nine tenths of a second behind a solid Ayumu Sasaki, who will start from the front line, with the Spaniards Sergio Garcia Dols and Iván Ortolá. In the second will be the Spanish Carlos Tatay together with the Brazilian Diogo Moreira (KTM) and the Italian Stefano Nepa (KTM), and in the fourth Taiyo Furusato, David Muñoz and the Italian Dennis Foggia (Honda), who is not in a very good predisposition to battle his rivals for the title, Ayumu Sasaki and Izan Guevara, from the beginning, being twelfth and, what is worse, more than a second behind Sasaki.