Luca Marini continued his recent upturn in form by taking his maiden Moto2 pole position at Brno on Saturday. The Italian made the most of friendlier track conditions at the start of qualifying to edge out Alex Marquez and Mattia Pasini while the two championship contenders line up together on the second row.
In sweltering temperatures, track conditions weren’t particularly conducive to fast lap times and with many riders battling to work within their tyre allocation, virtually all of the action came within the opening ten minutes of the qualifying session when new tyres offered the most grip.
The opening laps saw Pasini grab provisional pole on a 2:02.417, only for Marquez to edge ahead moments later, but Marini used a perfectly timed slipstream from his Sky VR46 team-mate Francesco Bagnaia to snatch pole by a tenth of a second. Despite over half an hour remaining, his time would remain unchallenged until the chequered flag.
Miguel Oliveira enjoyed a rare positive qualifying session aboard his KTM, equalling his best starting spot of the season in fourth, while Marcel Schrotter edged out Bagnaia for fifth. Sachsenring winner Brad Binder will start seventh ahead of Xavi Vierge and Dominique Aegerter while Lorenzo Baldassarri rounded out the top ten.
Moto2 Monster Energy Grand Prix Ceske Republiky (Qualifying)
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