Xavier Artigas (Leopard Racing) slammed in a 1:51.428 in the wet Moto3™ FP3 conditions to finish quickest on Saturday morning at the Gran Premio Nolan del Made in Italy e dell'Emilia-Romagna. The Spaniard finished 0.302s clear of second place Yuki Kunii (Honda Team Asia), Alberto Surra (Rivacold Snipers Team) is third with both Pedro Acosta (Red Bull KTM Ajo) and Dennis Foggia (Leopard Racing) inside the top 10.
Strong end to the session for @Le0pardRacing! ????@XaviArtigas43 grabs top spot while @dennisfoggia71 books his place in Q2! ⏩#Moto3 | #EmiliaRomagnaGP ???? pic.twitter.com/bXxCtmyG3W
— MotoGP™???? (@MotoGP) October 23, 2021
Foggia improves, Acosta safely into Q2
Conditions were by no means ideal for the Moto3™ riders in their final Free Practice session of the weekend, but for most of FP3, the circumstances enabled a lot of riders to improve their Friday times. Day 1 pacesetter Andrea Migno (Rivacold Snipers Team) wasn’t one of those though, as the Italian slipped to P12 – before crashing down at Turn 8 as the heavens opened in the final 10 minutes.
Importantly, Foggia – 23rd fastest on Day 1 – was able to climb to P10 before the rain began falling, but plenty of riders were still setting personal best times. Artigas went top of the pile on his final lap, Kunii also got the better of Surra to move into P2, with Foggia also setting his best time of the weekend on his last flying lap to grab P6 behind fourth place Filip Salač (CarXpert PrüstelGP) and fifth place Ayumu Sasaki (Red Bull KTM Tech3).
A solid FP3 from Foggia means he joins title rival Acosta in Q2 – the World Championship leader is P8 behind Adrian Fernandez (Sterilgarda Max Racing Team) heading into qualifying after getting shuffled down from P4 in the closing stages. Stefano Nepa (BOE Owlride) and Darryn Binder (Petronas Sprinta Racing) rounded out the top 10. Lorenzo Fellon (SIC58 Squadra Corse), Izan Guevara (Gaviota GASGAS Aspar Team), Andi Izdihar (Honda Team Asia) and Daniel Holgado (Red Bull KTM Tech3) – despite a late crash – are the other riders heading straight into Q2.
Next up: qualifying!
Don’t miss a single second of the action in the lightweight class, as Acosta and Foggia go head-to-head on Saturday afternoon to see who takes the advantage into Sunday’s race. Will it be wet, will it be dry? Tune in at 12:35 local time (GMT+2) to find out.
Top 10 combined:
1. Xavier Artigas (Leopard Racing) – 1:51.428
2. Yuki Kunii (Honda Team Asia) + 0.302
3. Alberto Surra (Rivacold Snipers Team) + 0.323
4. Filip Salač (CarXpert PrüstelGP) + 0.329
5. Ayumu Sasaki (Red Bull KTM Tech3) + 0.445
6. Dennis Foggia (Leopard Racing) + 0.625
7. Adrian Fernandez (Sterilgarda Max Racing Team) + 0.690
8. Pedro Acosta (Red Bull KTM Ajo) + 0.694
9. Stefano Nepa (BOE Owlride) + 0.721
10. Darryn Binder (Petronas Sprinta Racing) + 0.898