The first qualifying phase of the Moto3 Indonesian GP took place this Saturday in Mandalika. Scott Ogden was the strongest, qualifying alongside José Antonio Rueda, Stefano Nepa, and Riccardo Rossi.
In Q1, after the initial flying laps, Rueda (Red Bull KTM Ajo) was leading, with Roulstone (Red Bull GasGas Tech3) in second place, but things changed significantly during the second attempts. Ogden (FleetSafe Honda-MLav Racing) moved to the front, with Rueda remaining in second.
Also in qualifying positions were Riccardo Rossi (CIP Green Power/KTM) and Eddie O'Shea (FleetSafe Honda-MLav Racing). Rueda returned to the top four two minutes from the end, finishing in second place, 0.237s behind Ogden.
With Rueda’s improvement, O'Shea fell to fifth and was thus out of the qualifying spots. However, there was still time for something to change. Indeed, that’s what happened.
Although Ogden and Rueda maintained the top two positions, Stefano Nepa (LevelUp-MTA/KTM) put up a fight in the final phase, while Rossi didn’t improve and finished in fourth. Roulstone was fifth, missing out on Q2 by just 0.009s.
