Esteve Rabat was in a class of his own in Barcelona as he claimed pole for the Catalunya Moto2 Grand Prix. The championship leader looked to have a sizeable advantage over the rest of the field in free practice and duly converted it into a dominant pole position ahead of Marc VDS teammate Mika Kallio.
Rabat’s dominance was such that he was the only driver to hold provisional pole throughout the 45 minute session, improving from low-1:47s laps in the early stages to a 1:46.569 at the halfway point, the time that would ultimately stand as temperatures continued to climb. Rabat’s consistency was mightily impressive with an eye on tomorrow’s race with the Spaniard setting fourteen separate laps in the 1:46s range, each of which would have secured pole position on their own.
Kallio claimed second, half a second down, while Maverick Vinales put in a late burst to claim the final place on the front row. Sandro Cortese claimed fourth on the grid ahead of compatriot Jonas Folger who might have qualified higher but for traffic on his final run while Mattia Pasini grabbed sixth after capitalising on a slipstream from Vinales’ Paginas Amarillas Kalex.
Thomas Luthi and Johann Zarco were a thousandth of a second apart in seventh and eighth with Sam Lowes just five thousandths further back in ninth and Dominique Aegerter completing the top ten for Technomag.
