It’s one win apiece in Moto2 this season for Championship leader Manuel Gonzalez (Liqui Moly Intact GP) and key rival Jake Dixon (ELF Marc VDS Racing Team), but the former had made a clean sweep of qualifying so far. Dixon turned the tables in Texas to take his first pole of the year though and it’s Gonzalez he denied to set up another showdown – the #18 even heading through Q1 too.
Third goes to Barry Baltus (Fantic Racing LINO SONEGO) as he took his first front row, and he was on provisional pole until late on too before a crash at the end of the session.
Q1
It was mission accomplished for Gonzalez and by a monumental margin as he headed through with a gap of eight tenths in hand. David Alonso (CFMoto Power Electronics Aspar Team) was next up as he continues making steps in Moto2, and Filip Salač (ELF Marc VDS Racing Team) and Deniz Öncu (Red Bull KTM Ajo) completed the graduates to Q2.
That left home hero Joe Roberts (OnlyFans American Racing) losing out, just missing the cut.
Q2
Baltus was leading the way until the very end, with Zonta Van den Goorbergh (RW-Idrofoglia Racing GP) in provisional second too. They both got shuffled back by that last dash launch at glory from Dixon and Gonzalez, but the Belgian and Dutch riders take P3 and P4 respectively.
Aron Canet (Fantic Racing LINO SONEGO) slots into fifth ahead of a huge step forward in Moto2 qualifying for Alonso, who takes P6 to lock out the second row as top rookie too.
Tony Arbolino (BLU CRU Pramac Yamaha Moto2), Marcos Ramirez (OnlyFans American Racing), Salač and Öncu complete the top ten, with full results HERE.
Tune in for Moto2 from 12:15 local time on Sunday to see if we get another twist in the tale!