Moto2 COTA Qualifying: Raul Fernandez on pole, AGAIN

October 2, 2021 EMR Writer

He was a pole hound in Moto3 and he’s doing it in Moto2 taking his sixth pole position of the season.

Raul Fernandez can’t stop being rapid! Once again he starts from pole position after leading all Free Practice sessions heading into qualifying before taking pole by a huge 0.320 seconds to his teammate Remy Gardner in second place in his last lap of the session, Raul is just unstoppable at the moment on every occasion and is chipping away consistently from his teammate Remy Gardner’s championship lead. Thankfully for Remy he isn’t too far behind his teammate taking consistent second places meaning Raul can only take 5 points a round off Remy indicating the title is still well and truly in the hands of the Australian rider. Both Red Bull KTM Ajo riders were the class of the field today with Remy a full 0.158 seconds faster than Fabio Diggia in third.

Leading row two is Marco Bezzecchi who has struggled slightly this weekend but once again has been able to get the job done when it counts and take a strong fourth placing him directly in contention for a podium finishing ahead of Cameron Beaubier in fifth place, Beaubier has been impressing all weekend long and this fifth place just shows the huge step he has made, yes this is his home race and yes he has lots of experience at the track but this will inspire bucket loads of confidence in the Moto2 rookie riding at his home race beating some tough riders including Augusto Fernandez behind him in sixth place.

It’s rookies galore today! Tony Arbolino has been super strong this weekend running in the top positions in FP1 and FP2 before a tough FP3 meant he was forced to go via Q1, he didn’t let this phase him though knuckling down and escaping Q1 before qualifying in a strong P7 and led three other rookies with Ai Ogura and Albert Arenas joining him on row three with Arenas the fastest Boscoscuro rider. Celestino Vietti came from Q1 to finish in P10 meaning we have 5 rookies in the top 10, he finished ahead of fellow Q1 man Marcos Ramirez in P11.

Q2 Results –