Alex Rins backed up his encouraging practice form by taking pole position for the Indianapolis Grand Prix. The Spanish rookie was quickest in Friday’s opening session and carried that performance into qualifying, seeing off the spirited challenge of Tito Rabat to claim his second pole position of 2015.
The stage was set for a straight fight between the two Spaniards in qualifying and both delivered with pole swapping hands regularly in the early stages. Sam Lowes also looked set to fly the flag for Great Britain on the front row of the grid, even taking top spot at one stage, but the Speed Up rider crashed out at turn seven with twenty minutes remaining and his challenge faded from that point onwards.
With just under half an hour to go, Rabat took over at the top with a 1:36.781 but Rins found a quarter of a second on his return to the fray, going quickest again on a 1:36.549. To emphasise his superiority, Rins matched his own benchmark time to the thousandth of a second on his very next lap and despite his best efforts, Rabat couldn’t get back on terms.
Mika Kallio rediscovered the form which took him to victory here last season, snatching the last spot on the front row, while Thomas Luthi, Jonas Folger and Takaaki Nakagami secured second row slots at the expense of Lowes who tumbled to seventh. Championship leader Johann Zarco also suffered, qualifying down in eighth, with Franco Morbidelli and Sandro Cortese completing the top ten.
MOTO2 RED BULL INDIANAPOLIS GRAND PRIX – QUALIFYING RESULT
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