Johann Zarco went some way to putting the disaster of Silverstone behind him with pole position at Misano. The defending champion outpaced the in-form Takaaki Nakagami to claim his fourth pole of 2016 while his title rivals Sam Lowes and Alex Rins qualified on the second and third rows respectively.
Not for the first time in a Moto2 qualifying session, the decisive action took place in the early stages of the session as Zarco embarked on a blistering opening run. Within ten minutes, the Frenchman had already clocked a 1:37.464 and although that would have been good enough for pole position, Zarco improved by 0.028s moments later to emphasise his superiority.
The closing minutes saw attention switch to the fight for the other front row spots and Lorenzo Baldassarri looked to have claimed second with a 1:37.558 but with a matter of seconds remaining, Nakagami rediscovered some of the pace which had seen him top all three practice sessions to snatch P2, just seven hundredths off Zarco’s time.
Their battle saw Sam Lowes demoted to the second row and the Briton showed signs of frustration late in the session, first punching his machine after an error on a potential pole lap before gesturing angrily at Mattia Pasini after being held up on his last attempt. The Gresini rider will still line up fourth though with Franco Morbidelli and Silverstone winner Thomas Luthi alongside on row two.
Sandro Cortese starts seventh ahead of Alex Rins who faces another day of damage limitation tomorrow while Pasini rounds off the third row despite his altercation with Lowes.
Moto2 GP TIM Di San Marino e della Riviera di Rimini (Qualifying Result)
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