125cc: Smith wins close battle for pole
Polaris Aprilia rider Bradley Smith secured pole for tomorrow's 125cc event at Shanghai, holding off a late challenge by Nicolas Terol
Smith, who was second-fastest in yesterday's opening qualifying session, went to the top of the times in the first ten minutes of the session, lowering it again with less than ten minutes of the session remaining to 2:12.364.
It proved to be just good enough to hold off a late effort by Nicolas Terol, who set a time of 2:12.392 at the end of the session, just failing to take the top spot from Smith. Mike di Meglio and Gabor Talmacsi will join Smith and Terol on the front row in tomorrow's race.
Andrea Iannone leads the second row, ahead of Joan Olive, Pol Espargaro and yesterday's provisional pole man Stefan Bradl, who went only 34 thousandths of a second faster than yesterday and fell from fastest to eighth.
Championship leader Simone Corsi didn't improve on his Friday time and will start from eleventh position.
Pos Rider Bike Time 1. Bradley Smith Aprilia 2:12.364 2. Nicolas Terol Aprilia 2:12.392 + 0.028 3. Mike Di Meglio Derbi 2:12.905 + 0.541 4. Gabor Talmacsi Aprilia 2:13.012 + 0.648 5. Andrea Iannone Aprilia 2:13.147 + 0.783 6. Joan Olive Derbi 2:13.149 + 0.785 7. Pol Espargaro Derbi 2:13.173 + 0.809 8. Stefan Bradl Aprilia 2:13.184 + 0.820 9. Sergio Gadea Aprilia 2:13.262 + 0.898 10. Daniel Webb Aprilia 2:13.335 + 0.971 11. Simone Corsi Aprilia 2:13.404 + 1.040 12. Sandro Cortese Aprilia 2:13.436 + 1.072 13. Pablo Nieto KTM 2:13.744 + 1.380 14. D. Agerter Derbi 2:13.762 + 1.398 15. Raffaele De Rosa KTM 2:13.800 + 1.436 16. Stefano Bianco Aprilia 2:13.845 + 1.481 17. Steve Bonsey Aprilia 2:13.947 + 1.583 18. Takaaki Nakagami Aprilia 2:14.031 + 1.667 19. Michael Ranseder Aprilia 2:14.180 + 1.816 20. Efren Vazquez Aprilia 2:14.561 + 2.197 21. Pere Tutusaus Aprilia 2:14.629 + 2.265 22. Marc Marquez KTM 2:14.796 + 2.432 23. Esteve Rabat KTM 2:14.830 + 2.466 24. Scott Redding Aprilia 2:15.092 + 2.728 25. Tomoyoshi Koyama KTM 2:15.122 + 2.758 26. Alexis Masbou Loncin 2:15.325 + 2.961 27. Lorenzo Zanetti KTM 2:15.721 + 3.357 28. Jules Cluzel Loncin 2:16.153 + 3.789 29. Robin Lasser Aprilia 2:16.362 + 3.998 30. R. Lacalendola Aprilia 2:16.420 + 4.056 31. H. van den Berg Aprilia 2:16.501 + 4.137 32. Robert Muresan Aprilia 2:16.693 + 4.329 33. R. Krummenacher KTM 2:17.034 + 4.670 34. Louis Rossi Honda 2:18.440 + 6.076
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