Mattia Pasini clinched his third Moto2 pole position in a row after dominating the qualifying session at Silverstone. The Italian was fastest throughout, finishing two tenths clear of the two Marc VDS Kalex machines of Alex Marquez and championship leader Franco Morbidelli.
The foundation for Pasini’s pole positions in the Czech Republic and Austria were blistering laps at the very start of qualifying and the Italtrans rider put the same plan into practice this afternoon, clocking a 2:06.622 on his opening timed lap. In an astonishing display of consistency, Pasini would go on to clock an identical time on his next flying lap to underline his superiority over the rest.
Second-placed Marquez had also registered a fast time early in proceedings but a big challenge was emerging from his team-mate Morbidelli who finally broke into the 2:06s on his final run, but Pasini erased any doubt over where pole position was heading with a 2:06.572 five minutes from time, taking top spot even further out of his rival’s reach.
Marquez, who had been the man to beat through free practice, will start second ahead of Morbidelli while MotoGP-bound Takaaki Nakagami lines up fourth for Honda Team Asia. Luca Marini’s fine form continued in fifth with Dominique Aegerter rounding out the second row on the leading Suter.
Lorenzo Baldassarri is seventh on the grid on the second Forward machine with Miguel Oliveira eighth for KTM but championship contender Thomas Luthi has the most work to do tomorrow to minimize the points loss to Morbidelli, the Swiss rider struggling to ninth.
