Our rookie Valentin Perrone, 'el Coyote', is a Moto3™ pole sitter! Thirteen rounds is just what it took to the Red Bull KTM Tech3 rider to grab his first pole position in the category, and of course it happened at the BWIN Grand Prix of Austria, KTM's homeland! The young 73 continued to impress at the Red Bull Ring as he claimed the fastest lap in qualifying, and he will lead the way on the grid for the first time this season on Sunday morning. Jacob Roulstone managed to qualify in 12th on the grid, after he made it to Q2 from Q1.
Grand Prix of Austria
Already qualified in Q2 after finishing second fastest on Friday, Valentin Perrone continued to show competitive pace on Saturday at the Red Bull Ring. He took the third time of an eventful Free Practice 2 during which we saw him pull an incredible save that will stay in the books, and the young Argentinian ‘Coyote’ looked forward to the time attacks in qualifying 2 later in the afternoon. Valentin joined the usual protagonists for the pole position fight in Austria just after lunch time. The best of his first run was a 1’40.247 which had him in a provisional 5th place with just 5 minutes left on the clock. For the final time attacks, Valentin was inside a KTM foursome. That helped him improve to 1’40.105 to power up to a provisional 3rd, before he chose to place himself at the back of the group for the last lap. Confident in his pace, the young rider continued to push, and all sectors were red as he lapped an insane 1’39.938, which had him in pole position. Breathes were held in the garage though as a late effort of Maximo Quiles threatened, but his lap was eventually cancelled. First Moto3™ pole position for Valentin Perrone who continues to shine on KTM’s home turf, and we’ll look forward to seeing what he has in store for the race on Sunday.
The start to his Austrian Grand Prix was a bit trickier for Australian Jacob Roulstone, who had to go through the pre-qualifying stage. The number 12 showed decent pace in the morning’s FP2, finishing one second to the fastest of the session. The Aussie appeared to have gained in confidence, as he could make his way from Q1 to Q2, finishing 2nd of Q1 with a fastest lap in 1'40.952 (+0.332). As he joined Friday’s top 14, including teammate Valentin, Jacob first started with 1'40.798 that had him a bit far off, but he later on found the strength to gain a few more hundredths to a 1'40.590, which will place him in 12th on the grid on Sunday, as the Moto3™ race is scheduled at 11:00 local time (UTC+2).
VALENTIN PERRONE: "The weekend has been super fun so far at the Red Bull Ring, we are enjoying our time here a lot. Yesterday we were 2nd all day, feeling super well on the bike. We gained more confidence in the morning’s FP2 heading to qualifying this afternoon. We knew the other guys were super fast, but we had a good pace and we could fight for the pole position. I tried to ride on my own in the first run, but it was not enough, so I decided to work with Carpe and Rueda in the second run, and they helped me a lot today, so thank you to both of them. I am super happy to take my first pole position in the category, I hope that we will carry on working like this for the rest of the season. We know that our opponents will push a lot tomorrow, but we will do our best, I feel confident, so let’s enjoy the show!"
JACOB ROULSTONE: "Congrats to Valentin for his first pole position! I am happy to have turned things around relatively well from yesterday. I struggled a little bit in the last push of Q2, because we had already used our tyres since we were in Q1, but overall I am pretty happy with the feeling heading to the race!"
QUALIFYING RESULTS
1. Valentin Perrone (ARG), Red Bull KTM Tech3, 1'39.938
2. Angel Piqueras (SPA), MT Helmets-MSI, +0.046
3. Ryusei Yamanaka (JPN), MT Helmets-MSI, +0.146
12. Jacob Roulstone (AUS), Red Bull KTM Tech3, +0.652
TRACK RECORDS
All Time Record: 2025 - M. Quiles (SPA) - 1'39.639 - 157.0 km/h
Best Race Lap: 2024 - T. Suzuki (JPN) - 1'40.092 - 156.3 km/h
Best Pole: 2025 - V. Perrone (ARG) - 1'39.938 - 156.6 km/h
Top Speed: 2024 - T. Suzuki (JPN) - 224.2 km/h
