Maximo Quiles earned pole position during Moto3 World Championship qualifying Saturday at Petronas Sepang International Circuit, in Malaysia. Riding his CFMOTO Gaviota Aspar Team KTM on Pirelli control tires, the Spaniard topped the 25-rider field with a lap time of 2:10.396.
Red Bull KTM Ajo’s Brian Uriarte was the best of the rest with a 2:10.480, and home hero Hakim Danish claimed the third and final spot on the front row with a 2:10.529 on his AEON Credit – MT Helmets – MSI KTM.
Row-two qualifiers included IntactGP’s David Almansa (2:10.571), Red Bull KTM Ajo’s Carpe (2:10.604) and LEVEL UP – MTA’s Matteo Bertelle (2:10.844).
MOTO3 QP
More, from a press release issued by MotoGP:
Quiles grabs pole at Sepang while Danish takes Malaysia’s first front row since 2012 in P3. The reigning Champion takes P1 at Sepang as Uriarte and Danish compete the front row.
Maximo Quiles (CFMOTO Gaviota Aspar Team) remains the rider to beat in Moto3 as he secured pole on a sweltering Saturday afternoon at the Malaysian Grand Prix, edging out Brian Uriarte (Red Bull KTM Ajo) and Hakim Danish (AEON Credit – MT Helmets – MSI) for the top spot. Danish takes the front row on home turf, however, becoming the first Malaysian rider to do so since 2012.
Q1
Guido Pini (Leopard Racing) led Q1 early with a 2’11.614s lap before a 2’11.4s from Adrian Cruces (CIP Green Power) rang in early to send the Italian to P2. Replacement rider Leo Rammerstorfer (SIC58 Squadra Corse) was on the receiving end of contact from Kiattisak Singhapong (Rivacold Snipers Team), earning a warning from the FIM MotoGP Stewards for the incident.
Farther up the order, Pini didn’t improve his time in the session, but as it turned out, he didn’t need to. Ryusei Yamanaka (AEON Credit – MT Helmets – MSI) took a spot in Q2 with the third fastest lap, just five hundredths behind the Italian’s time. Snagging the final ticket into Q2, Marco Morelli (CFMOTO Gaviota Aspar Team) set a very late 2’11.708s, punching in just ahead of a pack of riders, including Valentin Perrone, who mistimed their final stint and didn’t cross the lap in time to set a final lap.
Q2
Riders began throwing darts at pole position straight out the gate in Q2. Looking for his seventh top ten in a row, Matteo Bertelle (LEVEL UP – MTA) continued his shining form in qualifying sessions to sit pole early.
Moments later, Alvaro Carpe (Red Bull KTM Ajo) took P1 from Bertelle, before the #83’s countryman David Almansa (Liqui Moly Dynavolt Intact GP) further raised the bar to 2’10.571s for first position on his third lap.
As the session ticked down to below two minutes, riders began their final stint, led by a three-rider convoy with 2026 World Champion Quiles, who set his eventual pole-winning time of 2’10.396 with his fifth lap. Pole position arrives as his first qualifying-leading time since Assen back in June.
Chasing the Champion across the line, Uriarte took P2, benefitting from the slipstream of both home hero Danish and the #28 ahead of them. Danish is forced to settled for third but it’s an impressive front row start on home turf, his country’s first since Zulfahmi Khairuddin back in 2012.
Despite earning P2 with his fifth lap, Uriarte crashed at Turn 2 on the subsequent lap, moments before Almansa saw his session ended similarly early as he ran wide at Turn 4 on his final run. His prior 2’10.571s time held, however, for P4 to lead row 2. Carpe will set off behind him, his time just three hundredths slower than the seven-time 2926 pole sitter, with Bertelle to close row two tenths farther back.
Australian Joel Kelso (GRYD Racing) clinched P7 just a hundredth behind the Italian, while Indonesian rider Veda Pratama (Honda Team Asia) will start eighth due to a 2’10.861s time only six thousandths behind the #66.
Adrian Fernandez (Leopard Racing) and David Munoz (Liqui Moly Dynavolt Intact GP) closed out the top ten with the best pair of times in the session within the 2’11s range. Fernandez led the pair of Spaniards home on Saturday with just three hundredths separating Muñoz from the #31.
