Moto3 Motegi, Qualifying: Pole position goes to Alex Rins, Antonelli is seventh

After the cancellation of the first day of testing and free practice on Saturday morning (due to the weather conditions and above all the poor visibility which would not have allowed the medical helicopter to take off in case of need), the Moto3 class riders dropped on track for the qualifying of the Japanese GP on the Motegi circuit.

The session (extended to an hour, but with 55 actual minutes due to a slight initial delay) saw the riders becoming familiar with the wet asphalt of the Twin Ring, which hosts the penultimate stage of the 2013 world championship.

Pole position went to Alex Rins, rider of Team Estrellia Galicia 0,0. For the Spaniard (second in the championship behind Salom) this is the seventh pole of 2013, a season which has always seen him very competitive.

Behind him, almost a second behind, we find his compatriot Maverick Vinales, rider of Team Calvo, who will have Alex Marquez, brother of Marc, leader of the MotoGP world championship, next to him on the front row.

Points leader Luis Salom is fourth (for KTM poker) and ahead of the Australian Jack Miller, Isaac Vinales, cousin of Maverick and our Niccolò Antonelli, seventh and first of the Italian riders with the FTR Honda of Team Gresini. Further back Romano Fenati, only twenty-sixth.

The other Italian drivers are Lorenzo Baldassarri twenty-fourth, Matteo Ferrari thirty and Francesco Bagnaia thirty-fourth. The two Japanese wild cards Hiroki Ono and Seda Yamaha finished in eighth and tenth position respectively, while Ana Carrasco, who had never ridden here, closes the starting grid.