125cc: Cortese claims last-gasp 125cc pole
Sandro Cortese will start tomorrow's 125cc race at Assen from pole position after taking a surprise last-minute pole position in qualifying this afternoon
Cortese had not featured at the top of timesheet during the session, which was contested mainly between Julian Simon, Pol Espargaro, Nicolas Terol and Britain's Bradley Smith.
Each of that quartet had a turn at the top in the last 15 minutes, and Smith was set to claim the top spot when he was two tenths up on Terol's provisional pole time on his last lap. But Smith lost time in the final sector of the lap and was then shuffled back to fifth as Simon and Cortese crossed the line seconds later.
Cortese lap just edged out Simon's effort by 0.011s as both knocked two tenths off Terol's previous benchmark.
Stefan Bradl qualified behind Terol in fourth, with Smith ahead of Andrea Iannone. Simone Corsi qualified seventh, with Espagaro only eighth after running strong early on. Sergio Gadea and Marc Marquez completed the top 10.
Joan Olive was the only faller in the session, losing the opportunity to improve on 11th place when he slid into the gravel with under three minutes remaining.
Pos Driver Bike Time Gap 1. Sandro Cortese Derbi 1m45.430s 2. Julian Simon Aprilia 1m45.441s +0.011 3. Nicolas Terol Aprilia 1m45.644s +0.214 4. Stefan Bradl Aprilia 1m45.679s +0.249 5. Bradley Smith Aprilia 1m45.712s +0.282 6. Andrea Iannone Aprilia 1m45.911s +0.481 7. Simone Corsi Aprilia 1m45.956s +0.526 8. Pol Espargaro Derbi 1m46.063s +0.633 9. Sergio Gadea Aprilia 1m46.125s +0.695 10. Marc Marquez KTM 1m46.164s +0.734 11. Joan Olive Derbi 1m46.188s +0.758 12. Esteve Rabat Aprilia 1m46.214s +0.784 13. Daniel Webb Aprilia 1m46.278s +0.848 14. Randy Krummenacher Aprilia 1m46.681s +1.251 15. Efren Vazquez Derbi 1m46.812s +1.382 16. Johann Zarco Aprilia 1m46.888s +1.458 17. Scott Redding Aprilia 1m47.087s +1.657 18. Jonas Folger Aprilia 1m47.311s +1.881 19. Dominique Agerter Derbi 1m47.341s +1.911 20. Cameron Beaubier KTM 1m47.728s +2.298 21. Lorenzo Savadori Aprilia 1m47.728s +2.298 22. Luis Salom Aprilia 1m47.933s +2.503 23. Lorenzo Zanetti Aprilia 1m48.217s +2.787 24. Michael van der Mark Honda 1m48.505s +3.075 25. Marvin Fritz Honda 1m48.510s +3.080 26. Jasper Iwema Honda 1m48.664s +3.234 27. Takaaki Nakagami Aprilia 1m48.777s +3.347 28. Alexis Masbou Loncin 1m48.784s +3.354 29. Karel Pesek Derbi 1m48.801s +3.371 30. Lukas Sembera Aprilia 1m49.413s +3.983 31. Luca Marconi Aprilia 1m49.863s +4.433 32. Tomoyoshi Koyama Loncin 1m49.922s +4.492 33. Luca Vitali Aprilia 1m51.578s +6.148 34. Pepijn Bijsterbosch Honda 1m51.811s +6.381 35. Roy Pouw Aprilia 1m54.484s +9.054
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