125cc: Talmacsi grabs pole in Qatar
Gabor Talmacsi snatched pole position in the final seconds of qualifying for the first 125cc race of the season in Qatar
The Hungarian just got across the finish line before the chequered flag to start his flying lap, which knocked his teammate Hector Faubel off of pole position by less than a tenth of a second.
It was only in the final part of the session that the riders began to improve on their qualifying times from Thursday's session, and Faubel was one of the first to improve.
The Spaniard was nearly half a second clear of the field with five minutes remaining, but Talmacsi and third-placed Mattia Pasini were able to slowly bring the margin down.
Lukas Pesek completes the front row in fourth place, although he is more than half a second adrift of the top three.
The long Losail circuit has led to a wide spread in lap times through the field, with Raffaele de Rosa lining up fifth on the grid, 1.1 seconds slower than Talmacsi.
However, the rest of the second row are very close to each other, as one tenth covers de Rosa, Sergio Gadea, Tomoyoshi Koyama and Esteve Rabat.
British rider Bradley Smith was set to start from the second row until the dying moments of the session, when he was knocked down to ninth place.
Pos Rider Make Time Laps 1. Gabor Talmacsi Aprilia 2:06.011 12 2. Hector Faubel Aprilia 2:06.091 + 0.080 9 3. Mattia Pasini Aprilia 2:06.135 + 0.124 12 4. Lukas Pesek Derbi 2:06.767 + 0.756 12 5. Raffaele de Rosa Aprilia 2:07.130 + 1.119 12 6. Sergio Gadea Aprilia 2:07.139 + 1.128 11 7. Tomoyoshi Koyama Ktm 2:07.207 + 1.196 13 8. Esteve Rabat Honda 2:07.275 + 1.264 13 9. Bradley Smith Honda 2:07.348 + 1.337 13 10. Simone Corsi Aprilia 2:07.525 + 1.514 12 11. Pablo Nieto Aprilia 2:07.865 + 1.854 11 12. Pol Espargaro Aprilia 2:07.987 + 1.976 11 13. Michael Ranseder Derbi 2:07.992 + 1.981 13 14. Andrea Iannone Aprilia 2:08.048 + 2.037 12 15. Alexis Masbou Honda 2:08.081 + 2.070 13 16. Stefano Bianco Aprilia 2:08.236 + 2.225 13 17. Randy Krummenacher Ktm 2:08.294 + 2.283 13 18. Mike Di Meglio Honda 2:08.360 + 2.349 12 19. Joan Olive Aprilia 2:08.552 + 2.541 13 20. Sandro Cortese Aprilia 2:08.662 + 2.651 13 21. Federico Sandi Aprilia 2:08.753 + 2.742 11 22. Nicolas Terol Derbi 2:09.059 + 3.048 12 23. Robert Muresan Derbi 2:09.903 + 3.892 13 24. Dominique Aegerter Aprilia 2:10.324 + 4.313 12 25. Lorenzo Zanetti Aprilia 2:10.388 + 4.377 11 26. Steve Bonsey Ktm 2:10.614 + 4.603 13 27. Joey Litjens Honda 2:10.928 + 4.917 11 28. Daniel Webb Honda 2:11.162 + 5.151 11 29. Simone Grotzkyj Aprilia 2:11.305 + 5.294 6 30. Roberto Tamburini Aprilia 2:12.387 + 6.376 9 31. Hugo van Den Berg Aprilia 2:14.277 + 8.266 10
Be part of the Autosport community
Join the conversationShare Or Save This Story
F1 2019 game includes official driver transfers for first time
F1 testing: Toro Rosso's Albon on top, Mercedes starts to show pace
Michael Schumacher's top 10 F1 victories
Ocon wants set-up changes after China F1 sprint as "performance left on the side"
MotoGP schedule: When is the next MotoGP race and where will it be held?
Honda MotoGP boss "confused" by "good improvements" not working
Friday favourite: Why Herbert prefers a car he had to wrestle above his F1 winners
Subscribe and access Autosport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
Top Comments