Moto2: Marquez dominates Moto2 qualifying

With the threat of rain hanging in the air, most of the top riders went for fast times early on, and Marquez was able to spend most of the session at the top.

He eventually improved his time to a 2m08.101s, which put him three quarters of a second clear of the field for a while.

Scott Redding was second for the majority of qualifying, the Marc VDS rider giving himself something to smile about as he returned to the front row on home ground after a run of tough races. He got the gap to Marquez down to 0.497s in the end.

For a while it looked like not only would Bradl see his run of poles come to an end, but he would not even make it onto the front row - until he salvaged third with his final run.

Jules Cluzel, Simone Corsi and Michele Pirro will start from the second row, ahead of Aleix Espagaro, Randy Krummenacher, Mike di Meglio and Alex de Angelis.

While Redding took second on the grid, it was an extremely tough session for Britain's other big hope Bradley Smith. Persistent technical problems saw his Tech 3 stuttering around the circuit and struggling to get a time in, and it was only after huge efforts by both rider and team that he was able to salvage 28th.

Pos  Rider                  Team/Bike            Time       Gap
 1.  Marc Marquez           Repsol Suter         2m08.101s
 2.  Scott Redding          Marc VDS Suter       2m08.598s  + 0.497s
 3.  Stefan Bradl           Kiefer Kalex         2m08.618s  + 0.517s
 4.  Jules Cluzel           Forward Suter        2m08.923s  + 0.822s
 5.  Simone Corsi           Ioda FTR             2m08.976s  + 0.875s
 6.  Michele Pirro          Gresini Moriwaki     2m09.021s  + 0.920s
 7.  Aleix Espargaro        Pons Kalex           2m09.216s  + 1.115s
 8.  Randy Krummenacher     Kiefer Kalex         2m09.415s  + 1.314s
 9.  Mike di Meglio         Tech 3               2m09.527s  + 1.426s
10.  Alex de Angelis        JIR Motobi           2m09.646s  + 1.545s
11.  Claudio Corti          Italtrans Suter      2m09.656s  + 1.555s
12.  Yuki Takahashi         Gresini Moriwaki     2m09.679s  + 1.578s
13.  Kenan Sofuoglu         Technomag-CIP Suter  2m09.711s  + 1.610s
14.  Thomas Luthi           Interwetten Suter    2m09.725s  + 1.624s
15.  Raffaele de Rosa       SAG FTR              2m09.803s  + 1.702s
16.  Axel Pons              Pons Kalex           2m09.994s  + 1.893s
17.  Max Neukirchner        MZ                   2m10.069s  + 1.968s
18.  Xavier Simeon          Tech 3               2m10.077s  + 1.976s
19.  Jordi Torres           Aspar Suter          2m10.122s  + 2.021s
20.  Esteve Rabat           Blusens-STX FTR      2m10.220s  + 2.119s
21.  Yonny Hernandez        Blusens-STX FTR      2m10.262s  + 2.161s
22.  Mattia Pasini          Ioda FTR             2m10.312s  + 2.211s
23.  Pol Espargaro          Speed Up FTR         2m10.514s  + 2.413s
24.  Kev Coghlan            Castello FTR         2m10.551s  + 2.450s
25.  Carmelo Morales        G22 Moriwaki         2m10.565s  + 2.464s
26.  Mika Kallio            Marc VDS Suter       2m10.744s  + 2.643s
27.  Kenny Noyes            Avintia-STX FTR      2m10.765s  + 2.664s
28.  Bradley Smith          Tech 3               2m10.804s  + 2.703s
29.  Valentin Debise        Speed Up FTR         2m10.920s  + 2.819s
30.  Javier Fores           Aspar Suter          2m10.968s  + 2.867s
31.  Dominique Aegerter     Technomag-CIP Suter  2m11.057s  + 2.956s
32.  Ratthapark Wilairot    SAG FTR              2m11.085s  + 2.984s
33.  Andrea Iannone         Speed Master Suter   2m11.335s  + 3.234s
34.  Alex Baldolini         Forward Suter        2m11.399s  + 3.298s
35.  Robertino Pietri       Italtrans Suter      2m11.562s  + 3.461s
36.  Anthony West           MZ                   2m13.483s  + 5.382s
37.  Mashel Al Naimi        QMMF Moriwaki        2m13.935s  + 5.834s
38.  Nasser Hasan Al Malki  QMMF Moriwaki        2m15.869s  + 7.768s