Moto2: De Angelis dominates first qualifying
Alex de Angelis dominated first qualifying for the 250cc British Grand Prix at Donington Park - taking provisional pole despite crashing near the end of the session
The Aspar Aprilia rider hit the top early in the session and then consistently improved his time to stay out of his rivals' reach. Teammate Alvaro Bautista briefly moved ahead with 12 minutes remaining, but it took less than a minute for de Angelis to reclaim pole and then extend his advantage again.
However, his session came to a slightly premature end when he crashed at McLeans with five minutes to go. De Angelis was running directly in front of Hiroshi Aoyama at the time, and the Japanese rider came extremely close to hitting the Italian as he slid along the road with his bike.
Although de Angelis was able to retrieve his bike, he was unable to restart the machine and had to watch the last few minutes of the session.
Andrea Dovizioso took second for the Kopron Scot team, ahead of Bautista, who fell at the Esses on his last run. Until Dovizioso's late lap, de Angelis had been 1.2 seconds clear of the competition, but Dovizioso narrowed the margin to just over a tenth.
Championship leader Jorge Lorenzo could only manage fourth, and was never in contention for pole. He ended the session 1.404 seconds slower than de Angelis.
Marco Simoncelli took fifth, ahead of Thomas Luthi, who was another of the many riders who fell in the closing minutes, all without injury.
Pos Rider Bike Time 1. Alex de Angelis Aprilia 1:46.582 2. Andrea Dovizioso Honda 1:46.740 + 0.158 3. Alvaro Bautista Aprilia 1:47.788 + 1.206 4. Jorge Lorenzo Aprilia 1:47.986 + 1.404 5. Marco Simoncelli Gilera 1:48.307 + 1.725 6. Thomas Luthi Aprilia 1:48.333 + 1.751 7. Julian Simon Honda 1:49.035 + 2.453 8. Hiroshi Aoyama KTM 1:49.279 + 2.697 9. Mika Kallio KTM 1:49.375 + 2.793 10. Hector Barbera Aprilia 1:49.572 + 2.990 11. R.Wilairot Honda 1:50.477 + 3.895 12. Fabrizio Lai Aprilia 1:50.506 + 3.924 13. R.Locatelli Gilera 1:50.595 + 4.013 14. Eugene Laverty Honda 1:50.833 + 4.251 15. Imre Toth Aprilia 1:51.221 + 4.639 16. Aleix Espargaro Aprilia 1:51.417 + 4.835 17. Dirk Heidolf Aprilia 1:51.458 + 4.876 18. Yuki Takahashi Honda 1:51.473 + 4.891 19. Shuhei Aoyama Honda 1:51.752 + 5.170 20. Dan Linfoot Aprilia 1:52.321 + 5.739 21. Jules Cluzel Aprilia 1:52.347 + 5.765 22. Karel Abraham Aprilia 1:52.520 + 5.938 23. Alex Baldolini Aprilia 1:52.664 + 6.082 24. Taro Sekiguchi Aprilia 1:52.844 + 6.262 25. Toby Markham Yamaha 1:53.254 + 6.672 26. Efren Vazquez Aprilia 1:56.191 + 9.609 27. Andrew Sawford Yamaha 1:56.551 + 9.969 28. Alex Kenchington Yamaha 1:59.845 + 13.263 29. Luke Lawrence Honda 2:03.189 + 16.607
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