The lightweight class opened the festivities on Saturday at the Autódromo Internacional do Algarve, with Red Bull GASGAS Tech3’s Daniel Holgado and Jacob Roulstone starting fresh and early the track action with Practice 2, followed later on by the qualifying sessions. Both Tech3 boys headed directly to Q2, Daniel Holgado qualified in P4 on the grid while teammate Jacob Roulstone will start his second Moto3™ race from P14.

Provisionally qualified in Q2 thanks to his P9 from Friday, Spaniard Daniel Holgado headed to Practice 2 with the aim to confirm his ticket. Although the morning was still a bit cloudy, track conditions were definitively better than the previous morning, and that logically left space for Moto3™ riders to take their times down. Unfortunately, Holgado suffered a crash early into the session, and lost time as he had to return to the pit box without his bike. Thanks to the amazing job from his mechanics, he was able to rejoin the session with a few minutes left on the clock, just enough for him to set a lap in 1’47.986. He took P11 in the combined standing and qualified directly to Q2. In the afternoon’s final qualifying session, Holgado rode a 1’46.547 in his last flying lap, and it will place him in P4 on tomorrow’s grid. Dani won the 2023 edition of the Grande Prémio de Portugal after starting from that same position on the grid, and he will with no doubt have the same goal as last year on Sunday.

Rookie Jacob Roulstone continued to learn about the Moto3™ category, and the learning process has been going well so far. In this morning’s Practice 2, the young Australian improved to a brilliant 1’47.855 in his final lap, which got him a seat in Q2. That’s 2/2 for the number 12 after he already qualified directly to Q2 on his debuts in the lightweight class. Eager to make a further step on the grid, Roulstone continued to push in the afternoon as he appeared confident on the bike. The competition was high and times were really close, but a great 1’47.463 in his final lap got him the fourteenth spot on the grid. Jacob will start from the fifth row on Sunday as he looks to make another top 10 result, when lights go out tomorrow at 11:00 local time, for nineteen laps.