Moto2: Simoncelli takes pole from Barbera

The Metis Gilera snatched back pole from Toth Aprilia's arch-rival Hector Barbera in the dying seconds of the 45-minute session thanks to a 1:45.168 lap, which put him back ahead of the Spaniard by 0.369 seconds.

Barbera had shot to the top of the times with three minutes of the session still to go, to break Simoncelli and Red Bull KTM's Hiroshi Aoyama battle for the top of the timesheets.

But the Japanese ultimately qualified only fifth, after his time was also bettered by teammate Mika Kallio, who will start third, and Lotus Aprilia's Alex Debon in fourth.

Aspar Aprilia's Alvaro Bautista, the winner of the last race at Misano, qualified sixth, ahead of Mattia Pasini, who crashed his Polaris Aprilia at the half-hour point and hurt his right hand.

Bautista's teammate Hector Faubel will start the race from the eighth spot, followed by Auto Kelly Aprilia's Lukas Pesek and Julian Simon on the Repsol KTM.

Thomas Luthi did not take part in the session after high-siding over his Aprilia and crashing heavily this morning. The Swiss briefly lost consciousness, but ultimately only suffered a concussion and a thumb injury, ruling him out of tomorrow's race.

Pos  Rider             Bike     Time
 1.  Marco Simoncelli  Gilera   1:45.168
 2.  Hector Barbera    Aprilia  1:45.537 + 0.369
 3.  Mika Kallio       KTM      1:45.563 + 0.395
 4.  Alex Debon        Aprilia  1:45.601 + 0.433
 5.  Hiroshi Aoyama    KTM      1:45.850 + 0.682
 6.  Alvaro Bautista   Aprilia  1:46.174 + 1.006
 7.  Mattia Pasini     Aprilia  1:46.322 + 1.154
 8.  Hector Faubel     Aprilia  1:46.360 + 1.192
 9.  Lukas Pesek       Aprilia  1:46.370 + 1.202
10.  Julian Simon      KTM      1:46.687 + 1.519
11.  Yuki Takahashi    Honda    1:46.739 + 1.571
12.  Aleix Espargaro   Aprilia  1:46.835 + 1.667
13.  R.Wilairot        Honda    1:46.847 + 1.679
14.  R.Locatelli       Gilera   1:47.049 + 1.881
15.  Karel Abraham     Aprilia  1:47.974 + 2.806
16.  Stefano Bianco    Gilera   1:48.620 + 3.452
17.  Manuel Hernandez  Aprilia  1:49.024 + 3.856
18.  D.T.Pradita       Yamaha   1:49.089 + 3.921
19.  S.G.Giorgi        Gilera   1:49.666 + 4.498
20.  Imre Toth         Aprilia  1:49.758 + 4.590
21.  Alex Baldolini    Aprilia  1:50.694 + 5.526
22.  Eugene Laverty    Aprilia  1:51.097 + 5.929
23.  Barrett Long      Yamaha   1:52.384 + 7.216