The Qatar Airways Grand Prix of Qatar continued on Saturday for the Red Bull KTM Tech3 Moto3™ squad with a final free practice session and the qualifying sessions on the menu. Valentin Perrone missed out on Q2 by a tiny margin, qualifying in 19th on the grid ahead of Sunday’s race, while Jacob Roulstone’s strategy did not pay off, as we will see the Aussie line up in 22nd as lights go out tomorrow at 17:00 local time (UTC+3).
Grand Prix of Qatar
Today was a whole other day for Valentin Perrone who recovered a bit of confidence on his KTM after a disappointing day 1 which saw him ride without feeling on the Qatari layout. In the final free practice kicking off the afternoon in Doha, the young rookie rode 15 laps with an improved 2'04.736 which sat him 17th in the timesheets. Heading to qualifying as the night fell over Losail, Valentin’s best lap of run 1 was a 2'05.248 which had him at the back of the timetable. However, he could stick to a group in the final time attack session, opting to follow most riders who chose to take the risk to exit with just 2’20 minutes left on the clock, and one last flying lap remaining. That strategy turned out to work well with Valentin improving to a late 2'04.517, however that was 0.037 seconds too short to make it to Q2. Perrone will start the Grand Prix of Qatar from 19th on Sunday.
After missing out by a small margin on a direct Q2 ticket on Friday, Jacob Roulstone had everything in hand to secure that much-wanted ticket, with only four remaining at stake in Q1. The speed was positive in Free Practice 1 heading to Q1 later in the day. When qualifying began, Jacob started strong with a 2'04.696, but somehow he chose to divert from the initial plan, and returned to the pit box as everyone else pit in. As he rejoined the truck with the rest, there was just one flying lap remaining, but that was not enough for the Aussie to improve. He will start from 22nd as he hopes to take a strong start to catch up with the leading group, and hopefully finish in the points.
VALENTIN PERRONE: "I am happy because I recovered some feeling and confidence on the bike today, which is a positive point. We almost qualified to Q2, which would have been great, but we missed that little extra to be in the first 4. Anyway, we will go to the race and give our best as we try to focus on ourselves. The goal is to finish the race, so let’s do that."
JACOB ROULSTONE: "I am disappointed to end the day like this of course, I feel like we had the potential to go to Q2, but we had a little misunderstanding. Anyway, let’s work tonight, try to get a good start, and we will try enjoying our second race of the year."
QUALIFYING RESULTS
1. Ryusei Yamanaka (JPN), MT Helmets - MSI, 2'02.638
2. Joel Kelso (AUS), Levelup-MTA, +0.041
3. Jose Antonio Rueda (SPA), Red Bull KTM Ajo, +0.276
19. Valentin Perrone (ARG), Red Bull KTM Tech3, +1.280 (Q1)
22. Jacob Roulstone (AUS), Red Bull KTM Tech3, +1.459 (Q1)
TRACK RECORDS
All Time Record: 2024 - D. Holgado (SPA) - 2'02.276 - 158.3 km/h
Best Race Lap: 2024 - T. Suzuki (JPN) - 2'03.135 - 157.2 km/h
Best Pole: 2024 - D. Holgado (SPA) - 2'02.276 - 158.3 km/h
Top Speed: 2024 - T. Furusato (JPN) - 250.5 km/h
