A historic milestone was officially written in the lightweight world championship as Veda Pratama secured a sensational pole position during the qualifying session of the 2026 Moto3 Australian Grand Prix at Phillip Island. The young Indonesian rider, competing for Honda Team Asia, mastered the tricky and changeable weather conditions to become the very first rider from his nation to claim a pole position in the Moto3 class.
Having to fight his way through the Q1 session ultimately turned into a blessing in disguise, allowing the rookie crucial track time to gauge the fluctuating grip levels around the iconic circuit. As the Q2 pole shootout reached its climax, the #X rider found himself sitting in fifth place and executed a brilliant tactical move by positioning himself at the very back of the largest pack on track, successfully avoiding traffic while utilizing the riders ahead as moving markers.
His blistering lap time of 1 minute 35.299 seconds pushed championship powerhouse Maximo Quiles down to second place by a minuscule margin of just 0.021 seconds. The newly crowned champion had kicked off Saturday morning by topping the extremely wet FP2 session, looking well on course to secure another pole before being dramatically denied at the final checkered flag by the inspired Honda Team Asia contender.
Honda machinery will lock out a strong presence at the front, with local hero Joel Kelso completing the front row in third position. Riding in front of his home crowd aboard a GRYD Racing machine featuring a special Australian flag livery, the local favorite was leading the timesheets before being edged out, and despite surviving a clumsy late-session crash from a following rival at turn four, he managed to salvage a strong starting spot.
Further down the grid, Joel Esteban fought through adversity to claim fourth place ahead of Eddie O'Shea, who capitalized on his Q1 run to put the second GRYD bike into fifth. Leopard Racing's Adrian Fernandez secured sixth on the grid, setting up what promises to be an unpredictable and fiercely contested Moto3 race battle around the sweeping corners of Phillip Island.
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