Saturday’s two Moto3 qualifying sessions at Le Mans took place under sunny French skies, with riders quick to take to the circuit once the lights went green. It wasn’t the best of starts for Leopard Racing’s Guido Pini, who experienced a crash early in the session and was forced to head straight into the pits for repairs. This didn’t slow the Italian down though, as he ended up setting the fourth fastest time and moved through to Q2.

Unfortunately, there were also crashes for Honda Team Asia’s Zen Mitani and SIC58 Squadra Corse’s Casey O’Gorman in the final moments of the session. O’Gorman had set the fifth fastest time, narrowly missing out on progressing, while Nicola Carraro (Rivacold Snipers Team) was eighth, Leo Rammerstorfer was 11^th and Mitani 12^th.

In the second qualifying session of the day Adrian Fernandez (Leopard Racing), Veda Pratama (Honda Team Asia) and Joel Kelso (GRYD – MLav Racing) were all in the battle for the front row throughout the allotted fifteen minutes.

While most riders opted to ride in a group in the final moments, Fernandez waited and set his final lap time alone on track. This proved to be the perfect strategy, with the Spaniard setting a 1min 40.044 second lap that saw him secure pole position for tomorrow’s race. Kelso also demonstrated his speed around the Le Mans circuit and set the third fastest time, which means he will join Fernandez on the front row of the grid.

Pratama will line up one row behind, after setting the sixth fastest time, while Eddie O’Shea (GRYD – MLav Racing) had a quieter qualifying session and posted the tenth fastest time. Despite a crash in the final moments that prevented him from completing one final flying lap, Pini ended the session 11^th, while Jesus Rios (Rivacold Snipers Team) was unlucky to experience a couple of issues and was 16^th.

Tomorrow’s Moto3 race around the 2.6 mile Le Mans circuit will take place over 20 laps and will get underway at the usual time off 11am local time.