Migno On Pole, Kunii Fractures Collarbone
Le MansAndrea Migno (Rivacold Snipers Team Honda NSF250RW) snatched pole position in the final moments of Moto3 qualifying.
The 15-minute session could hardly have been more complicated. Riders went out on slicks, but within minutes half the track had been soaked by a downpour, taking many riders back to the pits to switch to rain tyres. By the end of the session the track had largely dried and some riders had taken the gamble to complete the session with slicks.
Migno made the most of his slick gamble to take pole by more than two seconds! This is the 25-year-old Italian’s second pole of 2021, following his first at last month’s Portuguese GP. Migno finished that race in third place, so his aim tomorrow is to score his second top-three of his first Honda season, hopefully from one of the top two steps of the podium.
The second row and third rows are also led by Honda riders, with 2019 Le Mans winner John Mcphee (Petronas Sprinta Racing Honda NSF250RW) fourth fastest, a fraction of a second in front of fifth-quickest Gabriel Rodrigo (Indonesian Racing Gresini Moto3 Honda NSF250RW). Filip Salac (Rivacold Snipers Team Honda NSF250RW) was seventh to lead row three.
Yuki Kunii (Honda Team Asia Honda NSF250RW) scored the best result of his Grand Prix career at Jerez two weeks ago and was second fastest in this morning’s wet FP3, so he was hoping for a good grid position to boost his chances of another strong race result.
However, the 18-year-old from Setagaya took a tumble between Turns Three and Four during the Q1 outing. The fall fractured his left collarbone, so he will not be able to race tomorrow.
Q1 was dry, which is why Kunii’s best lap was fastest than Migno’s pole in the rain-affected Q2 session.
Andi Farid Izdihar (Honda Team Asia Honda NSF250RW) qualified 24th, three hundredths of a second down on his team-mate. The 23-year-old Indonesian is one of many riders who has been caught out by the constantly changing weather conditions at Le Mans, with a couple of falls in today’s FP3 session. Izdihar will start the race from the back of the grid after incurring a sanction for crashing in FP3, at a corner where yellow warning flags were out, following an earlier tumble.
Grand Prix first-timer Takuma Matsuyama (Honda Team Asia Honda NSF250RW) ended qualifying a respectable 25th fastest, considering that he had earlier taken two heavy tumbles. The 16-year-old from Chiba, who last weekend achieved his first Moto3 Junior World Championship podium at Valencia, has learned plenty during his first two days competing with world-class riders.
On the out-lap in qualifying we arrived at Turn Ten where it was completely wet and there were some crashes. At that moment most riders went into the pits but my sensations told me to do another lap just to check the rest of the track. I did that lap alone and the track was completely dry, so then I went to my pit and we thought, rain tyres or slicks? I decided together with my team to keep the slicks – let’s go again and keep pushing to the end. At the end my feeing was very good in the dry and I made a good pole position. I’m very happy – my feeling with the bike and with the team is great.
Yesterday I was struggling in every practice session, but today I felt very good in wet conditions, finishing FP3 in P2. I was confident, and every time I pushed the lap time came, with everything under control. In Q1 the track conditions changed again, becoming dry. I tried to remember what I learned in FP2, doing a constant progression with a clear option to enter Q2. But I crashed and unfortunately I have got a fracture to my left collarbone. I'm disappointed to miss this race because I’ve learned many things this weekend. Now it's time to think about my recovery to come back as strong as possible.
I made some mistakes in FP3, crashing twice. Even if the situation was complicated I kept my motivation to do my best in Q1. In dry conditions I struggled to understand how the track was because yesterday I lost the dry session because of a crash. Tomorrow I will try to make a good start because it seems I have a penalty after crashing under yellow flags.
I don't have a good feeling because I have had two highside crashes. Tomorrow it seems that it could rain. Under these conditions I feel better. During the race I’ll try to gain as many positions as possible.
