Johann Zarco looks well placed to extend his Moto2 championship lead after dominating Saturday’s qualifying session at Brno. The Frenchman leads by 71 points in the title chase and looked just as comfortable this afternoon, taking top spot on his first run and never relinquishing pole position from there.
With temperatures soaring as the afternoon unfolded, many riders found conditions more favourable at the beginning of the session with Zarco setting a 2:01.763 ten minutes in to wrestle pole away from Tito Rabat. He didn’t know at the time, but Johann had already set a time quick enough for pole position but the Frenchman emphasised his superiority with a 2:01.614 on his very next lap, moving him three tenths clear of the competition.
Rabat was another rider to peak in the early stages of the session but Alex Rins bucked the trend, reeling off a magnificent sequence of laps in the closing minutes to climb onto the front row, edging out Sandro Cortese who looked set for his first front row start of the season. The German will still line up in a season’s best fourth with Swiss pair Thomas Luthi and Dominique Aegerter joining him on the second row. Alex Marquez also qualified higher than he has all year in seventh, pipping Franco Morbidelli and Axel Pons, while practice pacesetter Jonas Folger rounded out the top ten.
Sam Lowes had his eyes on a top six starting slot but his session started poorly and never picked up. The Briton abandoned his first run as early as his out lap after a change of front forks failed to bring the desired effect and his final run was ultimately cut short when his rear suspension appeared to collapse. The upshot of it all was thirteenth on the grid, leaving him with plenty of work to do tomorrow.
MOTO2 bwin GRAND PRIX ČESKÉ REPUBLIKY – QUALIFYING RESULT
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