Stefan Bradl Continues Pole Record At Le Mans

Stefan Bradl's domination of qualifying in 2011 continued after the German took his fourth pole in four races at Le Mans.

The Viessman Kalex rider, who leads the championship by 13 points, got ahead of Aleix Espargaro with six minutes remaining and was never beaten, although it was far from a foregone conclusion.

The session was barely fifteen minutes old when Espargaro took provisional pole (1:38.560), usurping Marc Marquez, with Bradl just behind them in third. The front row remained unchanged until Bradl went out for his final run, going three hundredths quicker than the Pons HP 40 rider. With less than two minutes remaining, the German went even quicker, getting down to a 1:38.357.

It was fortunate that he had, as Thomas Luthi followed close behind with a lap that was just 0.045s slower, the Swiss rider continuing his record of having started on the front row at every race this season.

Yuki Takahashi will line up next to them after a last gasp flyer moved him up to third. The Japanese rider had been largely anonymous so far this weekend but delivered when it mattered most to put the Gresini Moriwaki on the front row.

Espargaro couldn't better his early effort and dropped back onto the second row, while Scott Redding produced his best qualifying performance so far this year in fifth. The Briton is yet to score a point this season but has a great chance to make up for lost time tomorrow.

The man who took him out two weeks ago at Estoril, Marc Marquez, will start alongside in sixth. The Spaniard will be ruing a mistake on his final qualifying lap when he went straight on at the turn nine/ten chicane, ruining a potential pole lap.

Stefan Bradl's two chief title rivals are back on the third row, with Simone Corsi eighth and Andrea Iannone ninth despite his best qualifying result of the year. Julian Simon pushed  Bradl all the way in Portugal and will be hoping for another strong race from ninth.

Dominique Aegerter will start tenth, a position initially held by Bradley Smith but the Oxford rider was caught up in an unfortunate incident with Axel Pons. The 20-year-old Spaniard lost control of his Kalex machine under braking for the Dunlop chicane, and his body made contact with the Mistral 610 as he slid down the road.

As long as he isn't too badly injured, Pons will start tomorrow's race from 14^th, while Smith will have work to do from 17^th. Kev Coghlan will start from the twelfth row of the grid after finishing today's session in 35^th place.