Vinales Storms To Pole At The Sachsenring

Maverick Vinales continued to defy his lack of experience by taking a stunning pole position on his first visit to the Sachsenring. The 16 year old has been the revelation of the 2011 season and took his third pole position in four races by a third of a second from Hector Faubel.

The session had appeared to be a straight fight between the two Aspar Aprilias of Faubel and Nicolas Terol, who had been quickest in every session so far this weekend. Heading into the final five minutes, it was indeed Faubel who held provisional pole by a tenth of a second from the championship leader.

Faubel set out on his last run in defence of pole position and set the fastest time of the weekend with a 1:27.808 but Vinales was already quicker behind him in the road, and bumped him straight down to second with a 1:27.649.

None of his rivals had any answer to that but the rookie added insult to injury by going a further two tenths quicker to confirm his place at the front of tomorrow's grid.

Faubel, who had a high-speed trip through the gravel in the last couple of minutes will start alongside, as will Luis Salom who jumped up to third in the closing stages, completing a Spanish lock-out of the front row.

Surprisingly given his dominance of the weekend so far, Nicolas Terol had nothing more to give at the end of qualifying and will have to settle for a place on the second row in fourth. Sergio Gadea had perhaps the most troublesome session of all after a suspension problem on his out lap but kept his head to secure fifth, demoting Johann Zarco to sixth.

Avant-AirAsia-Ajo teammate Efren Vazquez heads the third row in seventh ahead of Alberto Moncayo but the German crowd will have to look all the way back to ninth to find their leading rider Jonas Folger. Sandro Cortese fared even worse in front of his fellow countrymen and crashed at the end of the session, keeping him down in 15^th.

The honour of top British rider went to Danny Kent who finished right on the pace of his teammate in tenth. Danny Webb didn't have the same success against his teammate and will start from 16^th, with Marcel Schrotter getting his Mahindra up into 13^th.

All four British youngsters will start inside the first seven rows on tomorrow's 36-bike grid after Harry Stafford qualified 20^th despite failing to match his best practice time, with Taylor Mackenzie an excellent 21^st.

Qualifying Result: