Maverick Vinales denies title rival Sandro Cortese Moto3 pole at Brno
Maverick Vinales claimed his fifth pole position of the Moto3 season at Brno, doing just enough to deny his title rival Sandro Cortese
Vinales, who trails Cortese by 29 points following his last-lap fall at Indianapolis, took the gamble to set his best time relatively early, giving the rest of the field plenty of time to try and beat it.
It appeared that would happen as the chequered flag flew when Cortese, helped along by a tow from fellow Ajo KTM rider Zulfahmi Khairuddin, was more than three tenths under the benchmark after the first two sectors.
The German lost his advantage in the final two splits however, eventually missing out on pole by 33 thousandths of a seconds.
Khairuddin, who earlier gained a massive tow from Cortese before they traded positions, will start from the final front row slot.
Gresini Honda's Niccolo Antonelli finished more than half a second down on Vinales but did enough to seal fourth ahead of Kalex-KTM pair Luis Salom (RW) and Hector Faubel (Aspar).
Several riders fell during the session, among them Romano Fenati (Italia FMI FTR-Honda) and Alex Marquez (Estrella Suter Honda).
The latter, three times a faller at Indianapolis, crashed twice, while Fenati dropped his bike early on while running fifth. He was able to rejoin but unable to improve, and will start from 13th.
Pos Rider Team/Bike Time Gap 1. Maverick Vinales Avintia FTR-Honda 2m08.075s 2. Sandro Cortese Ajo KTM 2m08.108s + 0.033s 3. Zulfahmi Khairuddin Ajo KTM 2m08.504s + 0.429s 4. Niccolo Antonelli Gresini FTR-Honda 2m08.660s + 0.585s 5. Luis Salom RW Kalex-KTM 2m08.719s + 0.644s 6. Hector Faubel Aspar Kalex-KTM 2m08.880s + 0.805s 7. Jakub Kornfeil Ongetta FTR-Honda 2m09.019s + 0.944s 8. Alex Rins Monlau Suter-Honda 2m09.221s + 1.146s 9. Danny Kent Ajo KTM 2m09.307s + 1.232s 10. Jonas Folger Aspar Kalex-KTM 2m09.382s + 1.307s 11. Efren Vazquez Laglisse FTR-Honda 2m09.434s + 1.359s 12. Alessandro Tonucci Italia FTR-Honda 2m09.498s + 1.423s 13. Romano Fenati Italia FTR-Honda 2m09.532s + 1.457s 14. Alberto Moncayo Laglisse FTR-Honda 2m09.635s + 1.560s 15. Adrian Martin Laglisse FTR-Honda 2m09.641s + 1.566s 16. Louis Rossi Germany FTR-Honda 2m09.682s + 1.607s 17. Alexis Masbou Caretta Honda 2m09.737s + 1.662s 18. Alex Marquez Ambrogio Suter-Honda 2m09.821s + 1.746s 19. John McPhee Racing Steps KEP-Honda 2m09.848s + 1.773s 20. Arthur Sissis Ajo KTM 2m09.875s + 1.800s 21. Miguel Oliveira Monlau Suter-Honda 2m10.182s + 2.107s 22. Toni Finsterbusch MZ Honda 2m10.511s + 2.436s 23. Brad Binder RW Kalex-KTM 2m10.617s + 2.542s 24. Joan Olive TT Motion KTM 2m10.682s + 2.607s 25. Michael Rinaldi Caretta Honda 2m11.108s + 3.033s 26. Luca Grunwald Freudenberg Honda 2m11.259s + 3.184s 27. Jasper Iwema FGR-Honda 2m11.289s + 3.214s 28. Luigi Morciano Ioda Italia 2m11.349s + 3.274s 29. Mirsolav Popov Mahindra MGP30 2m11.969s + 3.894s 30. Kenta Fujii Technomag TSR-Honda 2m11.981s + 3.906s 31. Armando Pontone Ioda 2m13.726s + 5.651s 32. Giulian Pedone Ambrogio Suter-Honda 2m14.142s + 6.067s
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