Jorge Martin hails positive day as he qualifies eighth at Silverstone

The Moto3 class had escaped the rain showers at Silverstone… until the key moment today. The heavens opened just minutes before the start of qualifying for the British Grand Prix, when Mahindra Northgate Aspar riders Pecco Bagnaia and Jorge Martín made the decision to push as hard as they could from the start of the session in case the conditions deteriorated.

The move paid off spectacularly for the pair, especially Bagnaia, who picked up the first pole position of his career ahead of his Italian compatriot Enea Bastianini and Dutch rookie Bo Bendsneyder, who sealed his career-best grid. Title favourites Brad Binder and Jorge Navarro qualified in fifth and eighteenth position respectively, the Spaniard paying the price for a crash early in the session and now set to line up on the sixth row of the grid for a race that gets underway at 12:30 BST.

Mahindra Northgate Aspar rider Jorge Martín will start from the third row of the grid in eighth place thanks also to an early lap that he was unable to better as the conditions worsened. However, the Spaniard is confident he can be a contender for victory if the weather improves tomorrow.

8th Jorge Martín 2.34.647 (13 laps):
“It has been a positive day, I am starting from eighth and I am keen to have a good race tomorrow. If it is dry I know I can be fighting for the victory, I am ready to win. However, even though we are very fast in the dry I didn’t have any grip at all in the wet. I couldn’t improve my lap times from the start and then it started to rain even harder so I had no chance to go faster.”