Moto2: Dominant Simoncelli retains pole

The Gilera rider, who for the first time is using this year's Aprilia-built RSA bike instead of his usual Aprilia LE bike from last year, was again the only one breaking the 1:24 barrier.

After setting the provisional pole yesterday with a 1:23.953 laptime, today he improved it three times with a final best of 1:23.399, over six tenths better than anyone else.

Best of the rest today was KTM's Julian Simon, who snatched the second slot from Aprilia's Hector Barbera by just two hundredths of a second. Completing the front row, just 0.007 behind, was championship leader Mika Kallio with his KTM.

The Aprilias of Alvaro Bautista and Alex Debon had to settle for fifth and sixth, ahead of the two Gileras of Fabrizio Lai and Roberto Locatelli.

Simon dropped his bike with two minutes left of the 45-minute session, while Ratthapark Wilairot lost his Honda while overtaking Kallio and crashed into the Finn as the time was already expired. Both riders appeared to suffer no consequences.

Pos  Rider                Bike     Time
 1.  Marco Simoncelli     Gilera   1:23.399
 2.  Julian Simon         KTM      1:24.057  + 0.658
 3.  Hector Barbera       Aprilia  1:24.077  + 0.678
 4.  Mika Kallio          KTM      1:24.084  + 0.685
 5.  Alvaro Bautista      Aprilia  1:24.253  + 0.854
 6.  Alex Debon           Aprilia  1:24.398  + 0.999
 7.  Fabrizio Lai         Gilera   1:24.460  + 1.061
 8.  Roberto Locatelli    Gilera   1:24.502  + 1.103
 9.  Hiroshi Aoyama       KTM      1:24.544  + 1.145
10.  Yuki Takahashi       Honda    1:24.652  + 1.253
11.  Hector Faubel        Aprilia  1:24.709  + 1.310
12.  Aleix Espargaro      Aprilia  1:24.785  + 1.386
13.  Mattia Pasini        Aprilia  1:24.797  + 1.398
14.  Thomas Luthi         Aprilia  1:24.811  + 1.412
15.  Lukas Pesek          Aprilia  1:24.847  + 1.448
16.  Karel Abraham        Aprilia  1:24.865  + 1.466
17.  Ratthapark Wilairot  Honda    1:25.331  + 1.932
18.  Federico Sandi       Aprilia  1:25.492  + 2.093
19.  Eugene Laverty       Aprilia  1:25.840  + 2.441
20.  Manuel Poggiali      Gilera   1:25.889  + 2.490
21.  Alex Baldolini       Aprilia  1:26.197  + 2.798
22.  Imre Toth            Aprilia  1:26.862  + 3.463
23.  Russell Gomez        Aprilia  1:27.291  + 3.892
24.  Doni Tata Pradita    Yamaha   1:27.388  + 3.989
25.  Toni Wirsing         Honda    1:27.836  + 4.437
26.  Alen Gyorfi          Honda    1:29.134  + 5.735
27.  Chow Ho Wan          Aprilia  1:30.068  + 6.669