Moto2/3 Valencia: Stefano Manzi and Darryn Binder take first pole positions

November 14, 2020 EMR Writer

Stefano Manzi and Darryn Binder take their first-ever Moto2 and Moto3 pole positions.

Stefano Manzi takes a stunning pole position, the first for MV Agusta in decades, the last MV Agusta pole position was Giacomo Agostini in France in 1976 on the 350cc machine.

MV Agusta return to the top after so long, Manzi has a reputation for crashing but he has proven that wrong today with an outstanding pole position, he beat Hector Garzo to the top spot, the rookie putting in an incredibly impressive performance to take second place in Valencia with Marco Bezzecchi taking third place.

On the second row is ex-teammates Fabio Di Giannantonio and Jorge Martin, Fabio ‘Diggia’ will be looking for a solid result, crashing out of 2 of the last 3 races he has contested, he starts behind his ex-Gresini Moto3 teammate Jorge Martin with the pair looking to take a podium tomorrow in the class.

Another incredibly impressive rookie is Marcos Ramirez, the Spaniard doing bits for the American Racing Team, taking P6 and having a seriously impressive run of results lately.

The third row was led by Marcel Schrotter, the German rider joined by Lorenzo Baldassarri and Bo Bendsneyder on the third row, Baldassarri showing some of what he has been missing all year whilst Bo Bendsneyder puts in another solid performance, it would be a shame to lose him to World Supersport next year given that he is yet to ride a Kalex in Moto2 yet.

Luca Marini rounded off the top 10, not being as strong as he once was following his crazy Le Mans crash. Title leader Enea Bastianini was unable to get into the top 10, qualifying low down in P12 whilst Sam Lowes struggled with his injured hand and his bike not turning very well, starting in P18 for tomorrow.

Moto2 Q2 Results:

Moto2 Q1 Results:

Moto3:

Darryn Binder has taken his first Moto3 pole position, coming through from the Q1 session, finishing Q1 in P4 before improving his time by over 2 seconds to take his first Moto3 pole position ahead of the two Red Bull KTM Ajo boys, a team Binder rode for in the past.

Kaito Toba and Raul Fernandez were the next two riders up to the plate with Toba just beating the Moto3 qualifying king of 2020 to take second place, just 0.043 from pole position, then another rider affiliated with the Ajo team, Jaume Masia headed the second row, Masia moving to the team for 2021.

Joining Masia on row 2 was Andrea Migno in P5, only 0.286 from P1. Now, this is where things get veeeeery juicy, as 3 of the next 4 riders are all in the title fight, next up is Albert Arenas who leads Ai Ogura in the championship standings by just 3 points, I bet you can’t guess who’s next? Ogura? Correct, Ogura starts just behind Arenas, just 0.001 between the pair in P6 then P7.

Next up is Tatsuki Suzuki who leads another title contender, Celestino Vietti, Vietti trails Arenas by 20 points in the standings following his crash last week which also inadvertently was great for his title charge as the crash caused Lopez to crash into Arenas, damaging his bike enough to ruin his race and cut his 19 point lead down to 3 points.

Niccolo Antonelli rounded off the top 10, 0.404 from P1 as John McPhee qualifies way down in P16.

Moto3 Q2 Results: