Honda’s Foggia And Suzuki Dominate Le Mans Front Row
Le MansMoto3 World Championship hopeful Dennis Foggia (Leopard Racing Honda NSF250RW) rode to his first-ever pole position today, a fraction of a second ahead of team-mate Tatsuki Suzuki (Leopard Racing Honda NSF250RW).
The 21-year-old Italian, who stands second in the championship, 21 points off the lead, has won seven Grands Prix but this is his first pole, as he prepares for his 79th GP start.
Foggia has scored a full house in the French sunshine, heading yesterday’s FP1 and FP2 sessions and this morning’s FP3 outing, before adding pole position.
Suzuki’s speed at Le Mans suggests he could be set for his best result of the year so far, hopefully bettering his fifth place in last month’s Argentine Grand Prix. The 24-year-old from Chiba ended free practice a close third fastest, raising his game for qualifying to complete the Q2 session second quickest, just 0.151 seconds behind Foggia.
Andrea Migno (Rivacold Snipers Team Honda NSF250RW) will start the seventh round of the 21-race championship from the second row of the grid, after recording the sixth fastest time, less than four tenths off Foggia’s pole lap. The 26-year-old Italian has high hopes of racing in the lead group tomorrow, when the weather forecast predicts rain showers on and off throughout the day. Migno stands seventh in the championship, with one victory this year, at the season-opening Qatar GP.
Riccardo Rossi (SIC58 Squadra Corse Honda NSF250RW) qualified one row further back, ninth fastest, just 0.405 seconds off pole
Grand Prix rookie Taiyo Furusato (Honda Team Asia Honda NSF250RW) had never ridden the Le Mans circuit before yesterday, so the 16-year-old from Kanoya has had to work very hard to learn this very tricky circuit. He ended free practice 28th fastest and improved two places to 26th in qualifying.
Team-mate and fellow GP rookie Mario Suryo Aji (Honda Team Asia Honda NSF250RW) raced here in the 2019 Moto3 CEV series and was looking good after a great improvement in FP3, but qualifying didn’t go to plan, so the 18-year-old ended up 28th fastest. He will do his best to overcome that handicap in tomorrow’s race.
Moto3 teams and riders get to enjoy one weekend off after Le Mans before back-to-back races, with the Italian and Catalan GPs on May 29 and June 5.
We finally did it. I’ve been looking for a pole for so long and this weekend everything is going as we've planned. In any case, there's always work to do and the important thing will be the race. We are ready!
This weekend we are doing a solid job and we have chances for the race. Starting from the first row is always an advantage, and we'll do our best to get to the podium.
I've been improving session by session but I still don't have the speed to fight for the Q2 positions. I must improve myself – it's just a question of time. Despite that, I'm happy with my Q1 because on the second lap I did my best lap time of the weekend. I'm sure that tomorrow, following the fast riders and with the slipstream's help, I have room for improvement.
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A shame about my qualifying session because I made a significant improvement in FP3, but in Q1 I didn't manage the team plan so well. I will try now to forget all the negative things of today. Tomorrow I will have a tough race, starting from the back of the grid. The only way is to gain as many positions as possible during the race.
