Valencia Moto3: Veijer on pole in team 1-2 for Husqvarna

Collin Veijer picked up his second pole of the season after working wih his teammate Ayumu Sasaki in qualifying for the Moto3 Valencia Grand Prix, the final race of the season.

Lisa Lewis

25 Nov 2023

Collin Veijer, Ayumu Sasaki, Moto3, Valencia MotoGP, 25 November

The early pace at the Ricardo Tormo circuit was set by Jose Antonio Rueda, with fellow rookie Viejer already lowering his time, coming in with the third best offering then moving on to second rapidly as he lead around fellow Liqui Moly Husqvarna IntactGP rider Sasaki in the last Moto3 qualifying session of the season in Valencia.

Once the roles had swapped the rider from the Netherlands excelled and the #95 set the best lap of the weekend a 1m 38.311s.

That brought Veijer his second pole in his debut season, his first coming at the Australian round.

Working together brought Sasaki second on the grid, with the Japanese rider a little disappointed not to pick up pole as he could immediately identify small errors in his run which he could improve. If results go thier way Husqvarna can take the team title this weekend.

Injured Oncu on front row

Deniz Oncu looked worse for wear after his huge practice fall on Friday which saw him flung from his Red Bull KTM Ajo bike and the red flag brought out. Stiff on the bike, the Turkish rider was still all action on board but was deflated away from it, hoping to finish the race, clearly in pain, the #53 gave himself a shot at a great result from third on the grid.

Joel Kelso arrived with the best practice time for CFMoto Racing PruestelGP, just as the team announced a shock, late exit from the championship. He kept up the strong pace in qualifying, taking fourth.

Joining him on row two will be David Alonso, another rider suffering after huge practice falls, and Ivan Ortola who set the sixth best lap for the Angeluss MTA Team.

Rueda was eventually shuffled back to seventh on the second Red Bull Ajo entry, the best of the riders to come through Q1.

Champion Masia starts eighth after moving straight to Q2 - just.

After a couple of podium visits at the season closer at Ricardo Tormo in the recent past, last year saw Masia start eleventh and finish 22nd. After being crowned 2023 Moto3 champion at the last round, Valencia was once again looking set to be a race to forget.

At the close of P3 the Leopard rider had been shuffled out of the progression places by David Alonso, only for him to have that last lap cancelled, handing Masia a reprieve.

In qualifying, Masia was not near the top times, finishing just ahead of ninth placed David Munoz for BOE Motorsports.

Ryusei Yamanaka showed enough pace to complete the top ten. The Aspar rider finished the session under investigation as he appeared to collect Filippo Farioli as the chequered flag waved, the Tech3 rider gesticulating wildly at him in the gravel. Farioli finished the session 14th.

Daniel Holgado, on pole just last weekend for the Tech3 team, finished the session with no time set after his turn eleven crash with eight minutes remaining.

What happened in Q1?

Rookie of the year, David Alonso fought his own aches and pains after being plunged back into Q1. He moved through in second, with fellow rookie Jose Antonio Rueda leading the way out of the session. They were joined by early leader Taiyo Furusato (16th) and Riccardo Rossi (15th).

That left Matteo Bertelle as the first rider to miss out, the Rivacold Snipers rider lines up 19th. His teammate Romano Fenati was the last rider to take the flag, but his final push also left him short on his Moto3 swansong, for 20th.

Xavier Artigas also failed to progress, the CFMoto rider, a previous Valencia winner in Moto3, was eighth in the session for 22nd on the grid.

Injuries and Replacements

Vincente Perez (13th) completes his last round filling in for Ana Carrasco at BOE Motorsports.

David Almansa started the weeked for Finetwork IntactGP as a wildcard, but injured, he was swiftly replaced after P1 by Marcos Ruda (25th).

Injury disaster for VisionTrack

Joshua Whatley, who had been making strong progress after the summer break was ruled out of the final round after his crash on the first lap in Qatar. Hit by another rider he has only just left the country after being hospitalised with a broken tibia and fibula.

P3 saw a huge crash for Scott Ogden, with the British rider landing on his shoulder and immediately clutching his collarbone. A trip to the medical centre saw Ogden declared unfit for qualifying with a dislocated shoulder.