Kelso flies the Australian flag in Moto3™
Saturday, 21 October 2023
Australian Moto3™ racer Joel Kelso emerged as one of the stars of Qualifying on Saturday in the MotoGP™ Guru by Gryfyn Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix.
Kelso marked himself as the most likely challenger to Ayumu Sasaki after Moto3™ Qualifying, and the two will start Sunday’s race from the front row of the grid.
Sasaki topped Practice and dominated Qualifying, taking pole with a lap time of 1m36.539s. His Husqvarna looked to have quite a margin over the field but Kelso gritted his teeth to get his CFMOTO within 0.136s of the Japanese ace.
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“We did that lap alone and we are feeling good. It is awesome to see everyone out here supporting me!” the Darwin racer grinned.
Italian Stefano Nepa (Angeluss MTA KTM) qualified on the front row for the first time in his Moto3 Grand Prix career and will be looking to build on ninth, fourth and 10th place finishes in his last three races.
It was a mixed day for the Moto3™ title aspirants. Second, in the points, Daniel Holgado (Red Bull KTM) had to fight his way out of the first Qualifying session and could only make as far as 11th on the grid.
The man who leads him in the points, Jaume Masia, will start two places further back after miscalculating the time left in the session, and not getting across the line in time to start a flying lap at the end of the session on his Leopard Honda.
In Moto2™, Fermin Aldeguer took pole position, as many expected – but he took it by a huge margin, and it took him quite a while.
The Spaniard’s Boscuscuro lapped the track in 1m31.888s, besting countryman Aron Canet (Pons Kalex) by 0.342s.
Third fastest was Aldeguer’s teammate (and 2022 Island winner) Alonso Lopez, ahead of American Joe Roberts (Italtrans Kalex).
Moto2™ points leader Pedro Acosta (Red Bull KTM Ajo) will start from fifth position, one spot ahead of arch-rival Jake Dixon (GasGas Aspar Kalex).
In the two races in the Oceania Junior Cup, Archie Schmidt and John Pelgrave split the wins. Schmidt broke away in the first seven-lapper, winning by seven seconds from Bodie Paige, Valentino Knezovic, Haydn Fordyce and Riley Nauta.
In the second race, John Pelgrave came from outside the top 10 to snatch the win in the final metres of the race from Schmidt and Paige.
