Last Gasp Bradl Snatches Pole From Luthi

Stefan Bradl claimed his third pole out of three in 2011 but was given his sternest test yet on his way to securing it.

Pole constantly changed hands in the early stages with Marc Marquez setting the fastest time of the weekend so far ten minutes in before losing it at the halfway stage to Thomas Luthi. The Swiss rider held on to the fastest time until the final seven minutes when he was finally beaten by Mapfre Aspar's Julian Simon.

Luthi responded with a lap that was one thousandth of a second slower than the Spaniard before going even quicker on his next lap, going two tenths quicker than Simon.

With the chequered flag out, Stefan Bradl entered the final sector half a tenth down on Luthi, but the German dived into the slipstream provided by Ricard Cardus' Moriwaki on the pit straight to take pole by 0.163s.

Luthi and Simon completed the front row with Marc Marquez heading the second row of the grid in fourth. Dominique Aegerter was a surprise fifth but the Technomag–CIP rider nearly caused an even greater shock in the closing minutes until he crashed out at the Parabolica Interior when on course for a pole position lap.

Michele Pirro recovered from an early fall to snatch sixth from Gresini teammate Yuki Takahashi who will line up seventh. Kenan Sofuoglu threatened a pole position challenge but crashed in the final minute and was forced to settle for a place in the middle of the third row.

Fireworks look certain on row five, where championship leader Andrea Iannone will start. The Italian failed to get in the top ten once again but will still target a podium finish. Either side of him will be the British pair Scott Redding and Bradley Smith who qualified 13^th and 15^th respectively. Injury-stricken Kev Coghlan will start on the back row of the grid in 37^th.

Qualifying Result: