Dream start at the season opener in Thailand: Pole position for Almansa and Muñoz in row two
Newcomer David Almansa celebrated a very impressive debut with the team by securing pole position for the opening race of the new season on Saturday afternoon. Teammate David Muñoz fought his way up to sixth place on the grid.
For the LIQUI MOLY Dynavolt Intact GP Moto3 team, Saturday couldn't have gone better in the heat of Buriram. 20-year-old David Almansa has set the pace so far at this year's first Grand Prix. After setting the fastest time in Practice session on Friday afternoon, he was to count to the favourites for the best starting position on Sunday.
Almansa also finished Saturday morning’s FP2 as the fastest rider. In an exciting qualifying session in the early afternoon, he did not allow himself to be distracted from his plan by the usual hectic pace on track in the final stages. On his fastest lap, the clock stopped at 1´40.088, an incredible 0.4 seconds ahead of his closest rival in the timesheets.
On the other side in the garage of the Memmingen based squad in the Allgäu region, David Muñoz delivered a top performance despite still suffering the after-effects of his serious crash in Indonesia at the beginning of October. Due to a difficult Friday afternoon, Muñoz had to go through Q1 but managed to close the session in P2 for making it to Q2 with a strong attack.
In the 15-minute session, in which the starting grid for the first six rows was determined, Muñoz put all his eggs in one basket. His combative performance was rewarded with sixth place on the second row after just one flying lap.
The 2026 FIM Moto3™ World Championship will kick off with the first race of the season on Sunday at 12:00 p.m. local time (6:00 a.m. CET).
#ThaiGP – Moto3™ Qualifying Results:
1 #22 David ALMANSA / SPA / LIQUI MOLY Dynavolt Intact GP / KTM / 1´40.088
2 Alvaro CARPE / SPA / Red Bull KTM Ajo / KTM / 1´40.518 +0.430
3 Adrian FERNANDEZ / SPA / Leopard Racing / Honda / 1#40.693 +0.605
…
6 #64 David MUÑOZ / SPA / LIQUI MOLY Dynavolt Intact GP / KTM / 1´41.091 +1.003
