The Moto3™ class was back in action early Saturday morning at the Chang International Circuit with Free Practice 2 kicking off the action of the first Saturday of 2025. Later in the afternoon, Red Bull KTM Tech3’s Valentin Perrone and Joel Esteban went through the first qualifying of the season. The Argentinian rookie will start his first Moto3™ race from P21 while Esteban will line up on Sunday in 23rd, at 12:00 local time (UTC+7), for 19 laps.
Grand Prix of Thailand
Valentin Perrone’s first day at the Chang International Circuit was all about learning a new track, and Saturday’s morning Free Practice 2 was another chance for the rookie to continue learning the track while preparing his first qualifying. After another 16 laps, Valentin improved his fastest lap to 1'41.665, a positive step on his KTM ahead of the afternoon qualifying. At 12:50 local time, under an extremely heavy heat, qualifying 1 kicked off with Perrone setting an early lap in 1’41.715, one that provisionally had him in the Q2 spots until the final minute of the session. Eventually, many riders improved in the last moments, and with Valentin not improving his own best, he dropped down to P7, and he will start his first Moto3™ race in 21st on the grid.
Joel Esteban made some progress too in the morning’s Free Practice 2 before the qualifying session, finishing FP2 in 17th just 1.077 seconds from the top. In qualifying later in the afternoon, he had a similar scenario to teammate Perrone. He clocked in his fastest lap early into the session in 1’41.889, one that had him in P5 for a while 0.656 seconds from the fastest, but that lap remained his best while others improved in the last minutes. Joel Esteban will start the Grand Prix of Thailand from P23 on the grid for his first race with the Red Bull KTM Tech3 squad.
VALENTIN PERRONE: "I had a very good feeling in FP2 this morning and that helped me to arrive at Q1 with more confidence. I am happy with our Q1, I was in the top 4 for a while, and almost qualified for Q2, which is great for the first time. I was also able to improve on my own. I am now really looking forward to the first race on Sunday."
JOEL ESTEBAN: "We worked well with good lap times in FP2 this morning, preparing for the race with long runs and I was happy about it, the feeling was really good with used tyres. In qualifying, the feeling was not good, I made mistakes on the fast laps, but we know this is an area where we need to improve. Anyway, let’s see what we can do tomorrow, we are really motivated."
QUALIFYING RESULTS
1. Matteo Bertelle (ITA), LevelUp-MTA, 1'40.400
2. Stefano Nepa (ITA), SIC58 Squadra Corse, +0.082
3. Jose Antonio Rueda (SPA), Red Bull KTM Ajo, +0.096
21. Valentin Perrone (ARG), Red Bull KTM Tech3, +1.315
23. Joel Esteban (SPA), Red Bull KTM Tech3, +1.489
TRACK RECORDS
All Time Record: 2025 - J. Rueda (SPA) - 1'40.350, 163.3 km/h
Best Race Lap: 2024 - L. Lunetta (ITA) - 1'41.231, 161.9 km/h
Best Pole: 2025 - M. Bertelle (ITA) - 1'40.400, 163.2 km/h
Top Speed: 2024 - T. Suzuki (JAP) - 240.0 km/h
