125cc: Pasini takes narrow pole
Mattia Pasini has taken pole position for Sunday's 125cc race at Phillip Island in a hard-fought battle for pole position, which saw the top three riders separated by less than three hundredths of a second
With changing weather a threat, riders were quickly out setting fast times, Simone Corsi twice lowering pole position in the first ten minutes.
At the ten minute mark the best time was lowered two more times, first by Hector Faubel to 1:38.587 before Raffele de Rosa lowered it seconds later to 1:38.104.
As the session wound down it looked like de Rosa's time might not be beaten, before Lukas Pesek got to within two thousandths of it with ten minutes remaining.
Then, with just over five minutes left in the session Pasini did a 1:38.078 to edge de Rosa off pole. In the dying minutes riders tried, but were unable to get close to Pasini's best.
Raffaele de Rosa was second fastest, his best-ever qualifying effort, while Pesek was third, just 0.002 of a second behind. Tomoyoshi Koyoma showed similar form to Friday to end up fourth fastest, one place ahead of Simone Corsi who crashed in the closing minutes while pushing for pole.
The two championship contenders didn't have good days, Hector Faubel sixth, half a second slower than Pasini, while Gabor Talmacsi was never in contention, unable to improve on his Friday provisional pole effort, and will start ninth, just over a second off pole.
Pos Rider Make Time
1. Mattia Pasini Aprilia 1:38.078
2. Raffaele de Rosa Aprilia 1:38.104 + 0.026
3. Lukas Pesek Derbi 1:38.106 + 0.028
4. Tomoyoshi Koyama KTM 1:38.382 + 0.304
5. Simone Corsi Aprilia 1:38.528 + 0.450
6. Hector Faubel Aprilia 1:38.587 + 0.509
7. Sergio Gadea Aprilia 1:38.974 + 0.896
8. Joan Olive Aprilia 1:38.977 + 0.899
9. Gabor Talmacsi Aprilia 1:39.134 + 1.056
10. Sandro Cortese Aprilia 1:39.189 + 1.111
11. Esteve Rabat Honda 1:39.354 + 1.276
12. Mike di Meglio Honda 1:39.477 + 1.399
13. Bradley Smith Honda 1:39.697 + 1.619
14. Lorenzo Zanetti Aprilia 1:39.708 + 1.630
15. Michael Ranseder Derbi 1:39.750 + 1.672
16. Pablo Nieto Aprilia 1:39.775 + 1.697
17. Pol Espargaro Aprilia 1:39.797 + 1.719
18. Steve Bonsey KTM 1:39.945 + 1.867
19. Nicolas Terol Derbi 1:39.983 + 1.905
20. R. Krummenacher KTM 1:40.305 + 2.227
21. Alexis Masbou Honda 1:40.377 + 2.299
22. Andrea Iannone Aprilia 1:40.424 + 2.346
23. Joey Litjens Honda 1:40.544 + 2.466
24. S.G. Giorgi Aprilia 1:40.659 + 2.581
25. Daniel Webb Honda 1:41.197 + 3.119
26. Stefan Bradl Aprilia 1:41.240 + 3.162
27. Dino Lombardi Honda 1:41.476 + 3.398
28. D. Agerter Aprilia 1:41.949 + 3.871
29. R. Tamburini Aprilia 1:42.330 + 4.252
30. F. Lamborghini Aprilia 1:42.612 + 4.534
31. Glenn Scott Aprilia 1:43.415 + 5.337
Not qualified (Outside 107%): 1:44.943
Rider Make Time
B. Leigh-Smith Honda 1:44.971 + 6.893
Rhys Moller Honda 1:45.536 + 7.458
J. Leigh-Smith Honda 1:48.459 +10.381
Robert Muresan Derbi 2:13.903 +35.825
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