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Sandro Cortese denies Danny Kent Indianapolis Moto3 pole

Moto3 championshp leader Sandro Cortese beat Ajo team-mate Danny Kent to pole in an incident-packed Indianapolis session that saw two red flags

The first stoppage happened when Aspar's Hector Faubel had a very violent high-speed at the final corner. Faubel escaped serious injury but has been taken to hospital for checks due to chest and back pain.

Kent then led much of the restarted session, but would not secure his maiden Moto3 pole as Cortese came through to depose him by just 0.083 seconds.

The duo's final pole shots were then halted when Alex Marquez had a similar accident to Faubel, causing a second red flag with 23 seconds left on the clock. It was Marquez's third fall of qualifying.

The stoppage interrupted many riders' final laps, but no one was quite as frustrated as Laglisse rider Efren Vazquez, who set a quicker time than Cortese moments after the red was shown, meaning it would not count. Rather than starting from pole, Vazquez will start seventh.

Cortese's title rival Maverick Vinales got himself onto the front row in third at the very end, with Luis Salom, Zulfahmi Zhairudden and Alex Rins filling row two.

Among the many other incidents in the session, Jack Miller sustained another broken collarbone in a fall. His bike then slid into Adrian Martin, taking the Laglisse rider down as well.

Pos  Rider                Team/Bike             Time       Gap
 1.  Sandro Cortese       Ajo KTM               1m48.545s
 2.  Danny Kent           Ajo KTM               1m48.628s  + 0.083s
 3.  Maverick Vinales     Avintia FTR-Honda     1m48.643s  + 0.098s
 4.  Luis Salom           RW Kalex-KTM          1m48.990s  + 0.445s
 5.  Zulfahmi Khairuddin  Ajo KTM               1m49.024s  + 0.479s
 6.  Alex Rins            Monlau Suter-Honda    1m49.045s  + 0.500s
 7.  Efren Vazquez        Laglisse FTR-Honda    1m49.074s  + 0.529s
 8.  Romano Fenati        Italia FTR-Honda      1m49.324s  + 0.779s
 9.  Alberto Moncayo      Laglisse FTR-Honda    1m49.332s  + 0.787s
10.  Jakub Kornfeil       Ongetta FTR-Honda     1m49.334s  + 0.789s
11.  Miguel Oliveira      Monlau Suter-Honda    1m49.397s  + 0.852s
12.  Alexis Masbou        Caretta Honda         1m49.492s  + 0.947s
13.  Alessandro Tonucci   Italia FTR-Honda      1m49.605s  + 1.060s
14.  Louis Rossi          Germany FTR-Honda     1m49.610s  + 1.065s
15.  Jonas Folger         Aspar Kalex-KTM       1m49.656s  + 1.111s
16.  Isaac Vinales        Ongetta FTR-Honda     1m49.797s  + 1.252s
17.  Brad Binder          RW Kalex-KTM          1m49.986s  + 1.441s
18.  Jack Miller          Caretta Honda         1m50.056s  + 1.511s
19.  Alan Techer          Technomag TSR-Honda   1m50.066s  + 1.521s
20.  Alex Marquez         Ambrogio Suter-Honda  1m50.184s  + 1.639s
21.  Adrian Martin        Laglisse FTR-Honda    1m50.249s  + 1.704s
22.  Jasper Iwema         FGR-Honda             1m50.336s  + 1.791s
23.  Arthur Sissis        Ajo KTM               1m50.412s  + 1.867s
24.  Niklas Ajo           TT Motion KTM         1m50.443s  + 1.898s
25.  Niccolo Antonelli    Gresini FTR-Honda     1m50.483s  + 1.938s
26.  Luigi Morciano       Ioda Italia           1m50.936s  + 2.391s
27.  Danny Webb           Mahindra              1m50.990s  + 2.445s
28.  Giulian Pedone       Ambrogio Suter-Honda  1m51.073s  + 2.528s
29.  Hector Faubel        Aspar Kalex-KTM       1m51.407s  + 2.862s
30.  Toni Finsterbusch    MZ Honda              1m51.908s  + 3.363s
31.  Armando Pontone      Ioda                  1m52.070s  + 3.525s
32.  Kenta Fujii          Technomag TSR-Honda   1m52.576s  + 4.031s
33.  Riccardo Moretti     Mahindra              1m52.791s  + 4.246s

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