Veda Pratama to Start from 21st Position at the 2026 Catalan Moto3 Race
Jakarta (ANTARA) - Young Indonesian rider Veda Ega Pratama will have to start the race from 21st position after failing to advance to the second qualifying session (Q2) at the 2026 Catalan Moto3 World Championship at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, Saturday.
As quoted by MotoGP’s website, the Honda Team Asia rider had initially shown promise of qualifying for Q2 with a competitive performance in the first qualifying session (Q1).
Veda even briefly led the time sheets early in the session, setting the fastest lap and surpassing Guido Pini and Nicola Carraro.
However, the intense competition saw his position gradually decline as Alvaro Carpe took the lead with a time of 1 minute 47.382 seconds. Veda briefly held second place before being overtaken by David Munoz and Adrian Cruces.
In the second run, Veda maintained his hopes of qualifying for Q2, holding fourth position with three minutes remaining.
However, improvements in lap times from several riders in the final minutes caused the rider from Gunungkidul to drop to seventh place.
The four riders who qualified for Q2 from that session were Guido Pini, Alvaro Carpe, David Munoz, and Casey O’Gorman.
As a result, Veda will have to settle for starting the Moto3 Catalan 2026 race from 21st position on Sunday (May 17th).
Failing to reach Q2 continues Veda’s less-than-ideal performance since Friday’s practice session (May 15th), when he only managed to finish in 19th place, forcing him to start qualifying from Q1.
Meanwhile, pole position for the 2026 Catalan Moto3 race was secured by Red Bull KTM Tech3 rider, Valentin Perrone, after setting the fastest time of 1 minute 46.679 seconds in Q2.
Perrone narrowly beat David Munoz by 0.005 seconds, while Brian Uriarte took third place with a difference of 0.019 seconds.
The Q2 session was closely contested, with several changes in the leading position. Brian Uriarte briefly led towards the end of the session before Marco Morelli and Jesus Rios took turns setting the best times.
However, Perrone ultimately emerged as the fastest in the final seconds, securing pole position for the race in Barcelona.
The Malaysian rider, Hakim Danish, will start the Catalan race from 10th position.