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Moto2: Bautista secures pole before rain

Alvaro Bautista grabbed pole position for the Mugello round of the 250cc series, just before another downpour hit the track and decided the starting positions for tomorrow's race

But series leader and reigning champion Jorge Lorenzo was caught out by the conditions, failing to set a time before the rain fell, and ending up 20th on the grid. Despite pounding around the wet track right until the chequered flag, he could not get within three seconds of his Friday time, or 14 seconds of Bautista's pole mark.

The track had almost completely dried by the time the session began, but yet another cloudburst struck just after the quarter-hour mark, and with conditions steadily worsening during the remaining 25 minutes, it was soon clear that none of the riders would be able to improve on their initial times.

Andrea Dovizioso and Shuhai Aoyama will join Bautista on the front row, the Japanese rider producing his best qualifying performance of the season, while Friday polesitter Alex de Angelis slipped down to fifth.

Australian Anthony West, the other star of first qualifying, was shuffled down the order but will still start a promising ninth - his first top ten qualifying effort since last year's Sachsenring race.

Combined qualifying times:

Pos  Rider             Bike     Time
 1.  Alvaro Bautista   Aprilia  1:57.435
 2.  Andrea Dovizioso  Honda    1:57.923  + 0.488
 3.  Shuhei Aoyama     Honda    1:58.874  + 1.439
 4.  Thomas Luthi      Aprilia  1:58.971  + 1.536
 5.  Alex de Angelis   Aprilia  1:59.107  + 1.672
 6.  Hector Barbera    Aprilia  1:59.449  + 2.014
 7.  Hiroshi Aoyama    KTM      1:59.455  + 2.020
 8.  Mika Kallio       KTM      1:59.792  + 2.357
 9.  Anthony West      Aprilia  2:00.022  + 2.587
10.  Julian Simon      Honda    2:00.237  + 2.802
11.  Imre Toth         Aprilia  2:00.417  + 2.982
12.  Alex Baldolini    Aprilia  2:00.813  + 3.378
13.  Marco Simoncelli  Gilera   2:00.876  + 3.441
14.  Karel Abraham     Aprilia  2:01.529  + 4.094
15.  R.Locatelli       Gilera   2:01.985  + 4.550
16.  Dirk Heidolf      Aprilia  2:02.175  + 4.740
17.  Omar Menghi       Aprilia  2:04.693  + 7.258
18.  Jules Cluzel      Aprilia  2:05.061  + 7.626
19.  R.Wilairot        Honda    2:05.511  + 8.076
20.  Jorge Lorenzo     Aprilia  2:07.987  + 10.552
21.  Eugene Laverty    Honda    2:09.297  + 11.862
22.  Aleix Espargaro   Aprilia  2:10.810  + 13.375
23.  Arturo Tizon      Aprilia  2:11.127  + 13.692
24.  Fabrizio Lai      Aprilia  2:11.161  + 13.726
25.  Thomas Tallevi    Yamaha   2:12.495  + 15.060
26.  Taro Sekiguchi    Aprilia  2:14.749  + 17.314
27.  Yuki Takahashi    Honda    2:24.976  + 27.541

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