Moto2: Debon snatches pole from Bautista
Alex Debon snatched pole position by a mere one thousandth of a second from Alvaro Bautista in the closing moments of qualifying for tomorrow's 250cc French Grand Prix
Bautista looked set to hold on to the provisional pole he set yesterday thanks to a slight drizzle hitting the Le Mans track at the beginning of today's second session.
The damp track did not allow riders to improve on their times until there were only three minutes left in the session, when Bautista got within 0.017 seconds of his own provisional pole.
While the Spaniard ultimately did not manage to improve on his time, his countryman Debon did as he took the chequered flag with a time of 1:38.478.
Behind the two Aprilia riders, Italian Marco Simoncelli qualified in third with his Gilera, followed by the Aprilias of Thomas Luthi and Mattia Pasini.
The two KTMs of Mika Kallio and Julian Simon qualified in sixth and seventh respectively.
Gilera's Manuel Poggiali will start the race from the eighth spot, ahead of Aprilia's Aleix Espargaro and KTM's Hiroshi Aoyama.
Pos Rider Bike Time 1. Alex Debon Aprilia 1:38.478 2. Alvaro Bautista Aprilia 1:38.479 + 0.001 3. Marco Simoncelli Gilera 1:38.567 + 0.089 4. Thomas Luthi Aprilia 1:38.648 + 0.170 5. Mattia Pasini Aprilia 1:38.788 + 0.310 6. Mika Kallio KTM 1:38.790 + 0.312 7. Julian Simon KTM 1:39.051 + 0.573 8. Manuel Poggiali Gilera 1:39.064 + 0.586 9. Aleix Espargaro Aprilia 1:39.184 + 0.706 10. Hiroshi Aoyama KTM 1:39.197 + 0.719 11. Hector Barbera Aprilia 1:39.312 + 0.834 12. Yuki Takahashi Honda 1:39.446 + 0.968 13. Hector Faubel Aprilia 1:39.450 + 0.972 14. Fabrizio Lai Gilera 1:39.724 + 1.246 15. Lukas Pesek Aprilia 1:39.798 + 1.320 16. R.Wilairot Honda 1:39.924 + 1.446 17. R.Locatelli Gilera 1:40.171 + 1.693 18. Eugene Laverty Aprilia 1:40.325 + 1.847 19. Karel Abraham Aprilia 1:40.455 + 1.977 20. Federico Sandi Aprilia 1:40.595 + 2.117 21. Alex Baldolini Aprilia 1:40.605 + 2.127 22. Imre Toth Aprilia 1:41.365 + 2.887 23. Russell Gomez Aprilia 1:42.820 + 4.342 24. D.T.Pradita Yamaha 1:42.847 + 4.369 25. Chow Ho Wan Aprilia 1:45.655 + 7.177
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