The temperature rose in Malaysia, and not just becau💝se of the next title shot for Pedro Acosta piling pressure on Tony Arbolino.

The hot, sticky conditions continued to become more difficult, leading to the best lap🌺s being set early in qualifying for the Moto2 Malaysian grand prix, round eighteen of the championship.

The Speed Up rider’s best, a 2m 05.288s lap, came on 🧜just his second run around the track and first flying lap. Timed to perfection, the Boscoscuro rider held a gap of over half a second over the rest to claim💦 his third consecutive pole position.

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Celestino Vietti was the best of the rest, 0.502s behind. The Fantic rider crashed out late on pushing on to try an♏d ✱better his time and get closer to the Spaniard.

The final front row sl🌳ot went to Manuel Gonzalez (Correos Prepago yamaha VR46 Team) his first time there since the Indonesian round, showing the #18 is back to his best.

Aron Canet was fourth fastest but a spill🌼 from his Pons bike at turn four while Vietti was already in the gravel is expected to p🐼ick up a penalty. The incident was already under investigation before the conclusion of the session.

Marcos Ramirez ✱continued his upturn in form with the fifth best time for American racing.

Acosta’s title shot to launch from sixth.

Pedro Acosta had not been firing ahead on his arrival in Sepang, maybe understandable considering his last ꦦappearance at the track saw him convert ei👍ghth on the grid to a DNF.

The Red Bull KTM Ajo rider still holds all the cards, able to ♑finish as low a﷽s fourth even if Tony Arbolino goes on to win the race.

Arbolino himself made hard work of getting in through, with hisܫ sixth visit to Q1 needed to get to the second session🌳 for the chance of a grid advantage.

A determined run on the Elf Marc VDS bike saw him become one of the last to improve, moving into seventh just behind Acosta.The Italian can take heart from his performance at Sepang in 2022, where he converted second on the grid t🅘o a win.

Jake Dixon also made his inde GasGas Aspar work hard to move up from t🌺welfth to eighth as the clock ticked down.

Somkiat Chantra placed ninth for Idemitsu Team Honda, well ahead of his teammate Ai Ogura ,who was a lacklustre 13th. Jo꧟e Roberts progressed👍 through Q1 to complete the top ten.

Sam Lowes was pushed back to eleventh on the second Marc VDS bike, with Sergio Garcia tꩵhe best of theꦉ rookies for Pons Wegow Los 40 in twelfth.

Alonso Lopez again couldn’t do with the Bos༺coscuro what his pole-sitting teamate managed, leaving him down in 15th.

๊A crash for Filip Salac saw him unable to progress past 18th for🐎 Gresini.

What happened in Q1?

Arbolino eased through with the second fastest time of the weekend. The Italian was jo💮ined in Q2 by Albert Arenas, Taiga Hada (17th) and Joe Roberts.

Dennis Foggia was in a position tဣo climb out of fifth for Italtrans, but found himself behind his teammate Joe 🌼Roberts, who pulled out ahead as the rider sat in fourth, unwilling to give him the help into Q2 to take his place.

Zonta van den Goorbergh fell in the session, leaving him sixth, for 20th on the grid𝔍.

Rory Skinner continued his difficult transiti♔on from BSB with American Racing in 26t♕h.

Injuries and replacements

Izan Guevara suffered a nasty fall, right at the start of P3, brining out the red flag. The Aspar rider left the track on a stretcher, holding his arm and was taken to th🧸e medical centre for a check-up.

The Spaniard lined up for Q1, placing♋ eleventh in the session for 25th.

The same session saw a second red flag, to repair the air fence after Darryn Binder ended up sending his Kalex flying into it at turn one. The South African was sent to the medical centre for checks on his right hand after he ba൲rrel rolled through the gravel alongside his bike.

Binder did not return for qualifying.

Alberto Surra is thꦜe only regular rider out in Malay🅺sia. He is replaced by Sean Dylan Kelly (27th) at the Forward Team.

There are two additional wildcard riders on the grid for home grand Prix rides. Debutant Helmi Azman (31st) a♕nd Azroy Anuar (29th) are the extra riders,  both for Petr🃏onas MIE Racing RW.