Points leader Johann Zarco regained command as he took a dominant pole ahead of tomorrow’s Moto2 race at the Misano MotoGP, while Brit favourite Sam Lowes endured a frustrating day at the office.
The Frenchman came under little pressure from any of his rivals as he coasted to pole with a best lap of 1’37.436, in a qualifying session which was quite tame by recent Moto2 standards.
Unlike the usual frantic place-swapping that tends to go on in Moto2, today’s session was a relatively laid back affair, with Zarco setting an early pace as he stuck in his quick lap on his sixth attempt aboard his Ajo Motorsport Kalex, with more than half an hour of the session to run.
All three earlier practice session had belonged to Idemitsu Honda Team Asia rider Takaaki Nakagami, and the Japanese hotshot had been hoping to make it back to the top of the timesheets when it really mattered.
The hot, sunny weather however, played perfectly into Zarco’s hands. The reigning champion was looking to make amends after his coming together with Sam Lowes at Silverstone a week ago, and proved to be untouchable as he took his fourth pole of the season, despite last-minute charges by both Nakagami and Lorenzo Baldassarri.
The Forward Team rider has been loitering around the top four all weekend, and as qualifying drew to a close the Italian offered the best chance of a challenge to Zarco as he finished his day with his two quickest laps.
He was unable to topple either Zarco or Nakagami, and instead settled for third, equalling his best ever qualifying with a lap time just 0.114s off the pole time.
Britain’s Sam Lowes had what appeared to be a thoroughly frustrating afternoon on his Federal Oil Gresini machine. After some difficult runs he also managed to engage himself in an on-track gesticulation contest with Mattia Pasini as the flag fell, but still managed to grab fourth place on the grid for tomorrow’s race.
He starts ahead of Franco Morbidelli (Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS) with Silverstone winner Thomas Luthi completing the second row.
Dynavolt Intact GP man Sandro Cortese heads the third row ahead of title challenger Alex Rins who is still suffering after breaking his collarbone last month, with Pasini ninth and Hafizh Syahrin tenth.
Danny Kent will start from 15th position after a decent afternoon aboard his Leopard Racing machine, having made steady progress over the weekend. He’ll be looking to climb a bit higher into the points tomorrow.