Bautista claims maiden MotoGP pole as rain curtails qualifying at Silverstone
Alvaro Bautista claimed his maiden MotoGP pole position as rain curtailed British Grand Prix qualifying at Silverstone
The 27-year-old Spaniard, who is set to start his 37th premier class grand prix on Sunday, hit the front with 15 minutes of the hour remaining as his 2m03.303s lap put him a tenth of a second ahead of Yamaha's Ben Spies.
Spies went out to challenge for pole a few minutes later, but was caught out at the Maggotts/Becketts complex as the rain began to fall and ran off the track, ruining his lap.
Despite the track becoming damp several riders, including Casey Stoner and Jorge Lorenzo, went out in search of improvement. Neither managed to move up the order though, allowing Bautista to give the Gresini Honda squad its first pole since last year's Dutch TT.
Spies took a season's best second place for Yamaha with Honda rider Stoner third and world championship leader Lorenzo fourth.
Dani Pedrosa was fifth for Honda with Pramac Ducati rider Hector Barbera a superb sixth on the best of the Ducatis.
Factory riders Nicky Hayden and Valentino Rossi had near identical crashes at the entrance to Club during the session and could do no better than seventh and 10th. They were split by Tech 3 Yamaha rider Andrea Dovizioso and LCR Honda man Stefan Bradl.
Aleix Espargaro was the best of the CRT riders, the Spaniard putting his Aspar Aprilia 11th, a spot ahead of his team-mate Randy de Puniet.
Pos Rider Team/Bike Time Gap 1. Alvaro Bautista Gresini Honda 2m03.303s 2. Ben Spies Yamaha 2m03.409s + 0.106s 3. Casey Stoner Honda 2m03.423s + 0.120s 4. Jorge Lorenzo Yamaha 2m03.763s + 0.460s 5. Daniel Pedrosa Honda 2m03.835s + 0.532s 6. Hector Barbera Pramac Ducati 2m03.876s + 0.573s 7. Nicky Hayden Ducati 2m04.162s + 0.859s 8. Andrea Dovizioso Tech 3 Yamaha 2m04.304s + 1.001s 9. Stefan Bradl LCR Honda 2m05.035s + 1.732s 10. Valentino Rossi Ducati 2m05.416s + 2.113s 11. Aleix Espargaro Aspar Aprilia 2m06.283s + 2.980s 12. Randy de Puniet Aspar Aprilia 2m06.303s + 3.000s 13. Yonni Hernandez Avintia FTR-Kawasaki 2m06.814s + 3.511s 14. Michele Pirro Gresini FTR-Honda 2m07.016s + 3.713s 15. Colin Edwards Forward Suter-BMW 2m07.376s + 4.073s 16. Mattia Pasini Speed Master Aprilia 2m07.511s + 4.208s 17. James Ellison Paul Bird Aprilia 2m08.228s + 4.925s 18. Danilo Petrucci Ioda-Aprilia 2m08.686s + 5.383s 19. Ivan Silva Avintia Inmotec-Kawasaki 2m10.092s + 6.789s
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