125cc: Pasini beats Smith to pole
Mattia Pasini took a commanding pole position for tomorrow's 125cc French Grand Prix at Le Mans, which will see Briton Bradley Smith starting from the first row for the first time in the series
While the Italian scored his fourth pole in five races this season, the 16-year-old Honda rider impressed with the second-fastest time, albeit over four tenths of a second behind Pasini.
Pasini, who has managed to finish just one race this year, looked like having another run of bad luck when he came out for a single lap then went straight back in.
He did not rejoin until a third of the session was gone, but five minutes later he took the top spot of the timesheets. After Lukas Pesek briefly pushed him back to second, Pasini finally regained the top spot with a time of 1:43.111.
Smith's time was 0.458 seconds slower than Pasini's, with Tomoyoshi Koyama's KTM almost one tenth further back. The Japanese slid off six minutes into the session but successfully rejoined the track.
Hector Faubel completes the front row with a time 0.634 seconds away from pole.
The second row sees championship-leader Pesek in fifth - the Czech having an off 12 minutes into the session - followed by Sergio Gadea in sixth, Andrea Iannone in seventh, and yesterday's provisional pole-setter Gabor Talmacsi in eighth.
The Hungarian, who is second in the championship, improved yesterday's lap time by just over two tenths of a second, much less than his rivals.
Esteve Rabat didn't take part in today's qualifying session after being injured in yesterday's crash with three other riders.
The Spaniard is reported to have broken the third metacarpus on his left hand and his left elbow, and also sprained his cervical rachis.
Pos Rider Bike Time 1. Mattia Pasini Aprilia 1:43.111 2. Bradley Smith Honda 1:43.569 + 0.458 3. Tomoyoshi Koyama KTM 1:43.664 + 0.553 4. Hector Faubel Aprilia 1:43.745 + 0.634 5. Lukas Pesek Derbi 1:43.773 + 0.662 6. Sergio Gadea Aprilia 1:43.774 + 0.663 7. Andrea Iannone Aprilia 1:43.999 + 0.888 8. Gabor Talmacsi Aprilia 1:44.191 + 1.080 9. Michael Ranseder Derbi 1:44.191 + 1.080 10. Mike Di Meglio Honda 1:44.192 + 1.081 11. Alexis Masbou Honda 1:44.267 + 1.156 12. Raffaele De Rosa Aprilia 1:44.305 + 1.194 13. Simone Corsi Aprilia 1:44.518 + 1.407 14. Sandro Cortese Aprilia 1:44.558 + 1.447 15. R.Krummenacher KTM 1:44.668 + 1.557 16. Lorenzo Zanetti Aprilia 1:44.680 + 1.569 17. Pablo Nieto Aprilia 1:44.958 + 1.847 18. Joan Olive Aprilia 1:44.968 + 1.857 19. Pol Espargaro Aprilia 1:45.193 + 2.082 20. Stefano Bianco Aprilia 1:45.280 + 2.169 21. S.G.Giorgi Aprilia 1:45.310 + 2.199 22. Nicolas Terol Derbi 1:45.729 + 2.618 23. Dino Lombardi Honda 1:45.909 + 2.798 24. Robert Muresan Derbi 1:46.095 + 2.984 25. D.Aegerter Aprilia 1:46.139 + 3.028 26. R.Tamburini Aprilia 1:46.272 + 3.161 27. Steve Bonsey KTM 1:46.520 + 3.409 28. H.van den Berg Aprilia 1:46.676 + 3.565 29. Joey Litjens Honda 1:46.724 + 3.613 30. Federico Sandi Aprilia 1:46.984 + 3.873 31. Daniel Webb Honda 1:47.001 + 3.890 32. Romain Maitre Honda 1:49.031 + 5.920 33. Julien Cartron Honda 1:49.354 + 6.243 34. Steven Le Coquen Honda 1:50.116 + 7.005 35. Gwen Le Badezet Honda 1:50.616 + 7.505
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