Simeon Beats Lowes to Surprise Pole in Austin

Xavier Simeon sprung something of a surprise to claim pole position for the Moto2 Grand Prix of the Americas in Austin. The Belgian, who currently lies second in the championship after his podium in Qatar, emerged from nowhere to deny Sam Lowes in the closing minutes of qualifying as the Briton was forced to settle for second.

Lowes has endured a horrendous time so far with accidents blighting his weekend, not least a dramatic highside on Friday afternoon, and the Speed Up team’s nerves won’t have been eased by another spill 13 minutes into qualifying. Fortunately for them, their rider had already clocked a record breaking 2:09.942 to take provisional pole and even though he wouldn’t improve, a front row grid slot was looking assured.

As time ticked away, the competition slowly closed the half second gap with Tito Rabat climbing to second on a 2:10.077 twelve minutes from time. The world champion would be upstaged by Simeon though who first edged past the Marc VDS rider with a 2:10.010 before jumping to the front of the entire field with a 2:09.888 a minute from the end.

Lowes had no answer to the Gresini rider and had to make do with second ahead of Rabat with Johann Zarco clocking a 2:10.102 on his final attempt to secure fourth, just in front of Franco Morbidelli and Takaaki Nakagami.

Julian Simon will start seventh for QMMF with Alex Rins and Dominique Aegerter for company on row three but championship leader Jonas Folger will have his work cut out to stay at the top of the standings, the German having qualified down in nineteenth.

 

Moto2 Red Bull Grand Prix of the Americas: Qualifying Classification

Pos	Rider	Constructor	Team	Best Time
1	19. Xavier Simeon	Kalex	Federal Oil Gresini Moto2	2:09.888
2	22. Sam Lowes	Speed Up	Speed Up Racing	2:09.942
3	1. Esteve Rabat	Kalex	Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS	2:10.077
4	5. Johann Zarco	Kalex	Ajo Motorsport	2:10.102
5	21. Franco Morbidelli	Kalex	Italtrans Racing Team	2:10.135
6	30. Takaaki Nakagami	Kalex	IDEMITSU Honda Team Asia	2:10.190
7	60. Julian Simon	Speed Up	QMMF Racing Team	2:10.261
8	40. Alex Rins	Kalex	Paginas Amarillas HP 40	2:10.488
9	77. Dominique Aegerter	Kalex	Technomag Racing Interwetten	2:10.513
10	23. Marcel Schrotter	Tech 3	Tech 3	2:10.548
11	36. Mika Kallio	Kalex	Italtrans Racing Team	2:10.576
12	3. Simone Corsi	Kalex	Forward Racing	2:10.590
13	95. Anthony West	Speed Up	QMMF Racing Team	2:10.594
14	39. Luis Salom	Kalex	Paginas Amarillas HP 40	2:10.854
15	55. Hafizh Syahrin	Kalex	Petronas Raceline Malaysia	2:10.894
16	11. Sandro Cortese	Kalex	Dynavolt Intact GP	2:10.930
17	12. Thomas Luthi	Kalex	Derendinger Racing Interwetten	2:10.985
18	4. Randy Krummenacher	Kalex	JIR Moto2	2:11.031
19	94. Jonas Folger	Kalex	AGR Team	2:11.092
20	88. Ricard Cardus	Tech 3	Tech 3	2:11.104
21	7. Lorenzo Baldassarri	Kalex	Forward Racing	2:11.286
22	96. Louis Rossi	Tech 3	Tasca Racing Scuderia Moto2	2:11.486
23	73. Alex Marquez	Kalex	Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS	2:11.661
24	25. Azlan Shah	Kalex	IDEMITSU Honda Team Asia	2:11.954
25	70. Robin Mulhauser	Kalex	Technomag Racing Interwetten	2:12.509
26	10. Thitipong Warokorn	Kalex	APH PTT The Pizza SAG	2:12.735
27	66. Florian Alt	Suter	Octo IodaRacing Team	2:13.392
28	51. Zaqhwan Zaidi	Suter	JPM Malaysia	2:13.545
29	2. Jesko Raffin	Kalex	sports-millions-EMWE-SAG	2:14.118
NQ	49. Axel Pons	Kalex	AGR Team	No Time