The Spaniard heads Aldeguer and Dixon on the front row, with Fernandez 11th and Ogura 13th.
Good things come to those who wait, and Aron Canet (Flexbox HP40) had to wait a while to claim pole for the Motul Grand Prix of Japan. Heavy rain hammered the Mobility Resort Motegi just minutes into Q2, leading to a delay of more than 90 minutes before the field was let loose again. But despite having to re-acclimatise to the conditions, Canet charged to pole by 0.333, with Fermin Aldeguer (Beta Tools Speed Up) and Jake Dixon (Shimoku GASGAS Aspar team) joining him on the front row. The top two in the World Championship, however, are much further back as Sunday is puts plenty on the line in the intermediate class.
Earlier, Canet had dropped into Q1 but topped that, before Q2 was called to a halt with just over nine minutes remaining. When pit lane eventually did open again, the Spaniard was immediately on it, lapping each time at anywhere from a few tenths of a second to more than half a second quicker than the rest. As the rain started to ease off, he laid down a 2:04.939 just before the chequered flag, snatching top spot back from Aldeguer after the Boscoscuro rider had clocked a 2:05.272.
More drama hit for Aldeguer then as that lap time was scratched when it was thought that he set it under a yellow flag zone, but a glitch in the system had occurred and it was reinstated after the session following manual verification. Dixon is therefore ultimately third courtesy of his 2:05.669.
Canet has some breathing space ahead of the top two in the Championship on the grid as well. Somkiat Chantra (Idemitsu Honda Team Asia) could be one to watch on Row 2 in fifth, further ahead on his teammate’s home turf, but we have to go all the way back to the middle of Row 4 to find World Championship leader Augusto Fernandez (Red Bull KTM Ajo), with home hero and key rival Ai Ogura (Idemitsu Honda Team Asia) a couple further back in P13.
They are split on the timesheets by Alonso Lopez (Beta Tools Speed Up), too, who was one of three to crash in Q2 and fast otherwise. Is the ball in Canet’s court on Sunday? Or will dry skies change the game once again? We’ll find out at 13:20 (GMT +9)!
Moto2™ FRONT ROW
1 Aron Canet (Flexbox HP 40) – Kalex – 2’04.939
2 Fermin Aldeguer (Beta Tools SpeedUp) – Boscoscuro – +0.333
3 Jake Dixon (Shimoku GASGAS Aspar Team) – Kalex – +0.730
Aron Canet: “After waiting one hour in the box, it was really difficult coming back to the track, with only seven minutes to stretch a little bit and come to the track. But, after really difficult conditions, to come back and get pole position was really good, and wet conditions are bad. Tomorrow will be dry conditions; completely different. It’s good to start the race on the first row, better than the fourth or fifth row, but that’s Moto2, it’s a really, really difficult category, and we’ll see how it is tomorrow.
“During the year, we have been really, really strong on all the tracks, and I think for sure that we will fight for the podium tomorrow. Motegi is amazing in Moto3 and Moto2 but better on Moto2; more power, more movements, and it’s better.”
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