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
Be part of the Autosport community
Join the conversationShare Or Save This Story
Subscribe and access Autosport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
Top Comments