Thomas Luthi smashed the Sepang Moto2 lap record to claim his first pole position of the 2015 season in Malaysia. The Swiss rider knocked half a second off the previous record set by Johann Zarco in morning practice with the new world champion forced to settle for second on the grid.
With the storm crowds rolling in and thunder in the air, there was a greater sense of urgency at the start of qualifying with everyone keen to get a time on the board before the rain arrived. Sandro Cortese set the initial benchmark on a 2:07.634 but Luthi soon established his superiority by ducking straight into the 2:06s on his first attempt.
Zarco would soon join Luthi in that particular time bracket but the Interwetten rider wasn’t finished and stretched his lead back out to half a second on his next lap. That would ultimately prove enough to secure pole position with Zarco’s improvement to a 2:06.510 coming moments before the rain finally arrived at Sepang.
Alex Rins also beat the weather to go third, the only other rider to break the 2:07 barrier, while Jonas Folger took fourth ahead of Phillip Island star Lorenzo Baldassarri. Cortese was relegated to sixth ahead of Takaaki Nakagami and Britain’s Sam Lowes while Alex Marquez and Xavier Simeon completed the top ten.
MOTO2 SHELL MALAYSIA MOTORCYCLE GRAND PRIX: QUALIFYING RESULT
[table id=728 /]
