Tito Rabat will start his final Grand Prix in the Moto2 class from pole position after a copybook qualifying performance in Valencia. The 2014 champion has endured an injury-ravaged end to the year but marked his return in sensational style, beating new champion Johann Zarco to pole.
After shining at Sepang, 2014 Valencia winner Thomas Luthi continued his impressive form with a 1:36.002 to kick things off while a 1:35.603 soon afterwards established him as the man to beat. Zarco had shown no signs of the form which saw him beat Luthi In Malaysia but that changed with half an hour left on the clock, Johann lowering the benchmark time to a 1:35.376.
The decisive change came moments later when Rabat’s constant battles with the final sector finally brought reward with the Spaniard clocking a 1:35.334 to grab provisional pole. Zarco did improve himself but that only served to limit the margin between the two champions with Tito gaining a tenth in the latter stages to secure top spot.
Alex Rins snatched third to keep himself firmly in contention for the championship runner-up place with Luthi relegated to fourth, three tenths off pole. Lorenzo Baldassarri will start a superb fifth ahead of Julian Simon and Axel Pons while Takaaki Nakagami lines up eighth, one spot ahead of Simone Corsi.
Sam Lowes rounded out the top ten but the Briton was left ruing what might have been in a qualifying session which started with an unfortunate crash.
MOTO2 GP MOTUL DE LA COMUNITAT VALENCIANA: QUALIFYING RESULT
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