The Moto2 lap record in Losail was broken again, this time by Joe Roberts to claim pole position for the Qatar Grand Prix. The American already held the record before this round, momentarily losing it during Q1.
After dominating the practices, Fermín Aldeguer (Beta Tools SpeedUp/Boscoscuro) started Q2 in the lead, with his teammate Alonso López in second. Both were overtaken eight minutes from the end by Celestino Vietti (Fantic Racing/Kalex) and Arón Canet (Pons Wegow Los40/Kalex). On the following lap, Vietti set a new record: 1m57.312s.
Canet came close to overtaking the Italian, trailing by just 21 milliseconds, while Roberts (Italtrans Racing Team/Kalex) moved up to third place. It was the American who managed to dethrone Vietti, being seven milliseconds faster with two minutes to go. Canet held third place, and Aldeguer was in fourth, with championship leader Pedro Acosta (Red Bull KTM Ajo/Kalex) in seventh.
In the last minute, there was an anticlimactic end with a red flag and an early session conclusion. The issue arose from a failure in Alex Escrig’s Forward, with the engine giving out and leaving an oil trail on the track.
Q2 results:
Overall results of the qualifying: