Moto3 Algarve Qualifying: Sergio Garcia smashes lap record on return

November 6, 2021 EMR Writer

Sergio Garcia returns from injury to take his first pole position and the lap record.

It’s as if he never left! Despite missing two races Sergio Garcia has returned to Moto3 and smashed the lap record to take pole position in the lightweight class for the Aspar team. A shame he was forced to miss two rounds as there’s no doubt we’d have been looking at a three-way battle for the championship with Garcia joining Foggia and Acosta. His lap time came seemingly from nowhere with Filip Salac leading most of the session before the final lap scrap we have become accustomed to which demoted him down to P9 by the end of the session!

Garcia came in with an obscene 1:47.274 on only his fifth lap of the session whilst most of the fastest times were set on the riders final seventh lap, this includes second-placed John McPhee only 0.017 seconds behind the Aspar rider very nearly taking the lap record to himself, McPhee has been looking strong in the free practice sessions and could be the race victor tomorrow, rounding out the first row was Adrian Fernandez who came from seemingly nowhere to take his first-ever Moto3 front row, a tragedy that he hasn’t got a ride for 2022.

Title contender Dennis Foggia opened up the second row ahead of Jaume Masia, not the fastest Red Bull KTM Ajo rider we expected to see, he has been tasked with helping out his teammate win the title and seems to be doing the exact opposite of this, damaging Acosta’s qualifying in COTA before taking four valuable points away from him at Misano. No doubt his team will be having a word with him especially as he is being paid to do his job, Xavier Artigas came home in a strong P6, doing his job of beating Acosta.

Leading the third row was Darryn Binder, the South African rider ahead of Niccolo Antonelli who came through from Q1 to take a top 10 finish ahead of Salac with Ayumu Sasaki rounding out the top 10.

Pedro Acosta will start tomorrow’s race from P14 on the grid, historically he has shown he is more than capable of working his way through the field but it’s going to be tricky to win the title from P14!

Q2 Results –