British Moto2 rider Scott Redding of the Marc VDS Racing Team in action during a free practice session on the second day for the Motorcycling Grand Prix of Qatar, at Al Losail International Circuit in Doha, yesterday. The 2013 MotoGP World Championship season’s first race will be held at Losail International Circuit today.
DOHA: Spanish rider Pol Espargaro yesterday outpaced inform Japanese rival Takaaki Nagakami to grab the season’s first pole position for today’s opening round of the 2013 Moto2 World Championship.
Espargaro, who survived a slip into the gravel at the start of qualifying, wasted little time to pick up momentum on his Kalex bike in fine style as the Spaniard produced the fastest time of 2’00.882 to secure the top slot on the grid.
The Tuenti HP 40 rider will share the front row with Italtrans Racing Team’s Takaaki Nakagami and Marc VDS Racing Team’s Mika Kallio.
Nagakami - the fastest rider on the last two days - was just .132secs slower than Espargaro who produced his best time on the 15th and final lap around Losail International Circuit.
Finland’s Mika Kallio, also riding a Kalex bike like the top two, was third fastest with a time of 2’01.041.
Kallio finished ahead of team-mate Britain’s Scott Redding, the fourth Kalex rider in the top four.
Redding impressed with his time of 2’01.089.
Switzerland’s Dominique Aegerter, riding a Suter bike, will be on the fifth grid on the second row. Yesterday, Aegerter finished with a time of 2’01.120.
On the sixth and last grid in the second row today, Julian Simon of Spain will be seen on his Kalex bike. Simon yesterday was the sixth fastest rider with a time of 2’01.447.
QMMF Racing Team’s Anthony West impressed early on with his fast pace but slipped to 15th on the grid at the of the hartd-fough session. West clocked a time of 2’01.944, just 1.062 off the pace set by Espargaro.
West’s team-mate Rafid Topan Sucipto of Indonesia was 30th out of 32 riders. Sucipto (2’04.731) was 3.849secs slower than Espargaro.
As had been the case with the previous session for Moto3, the riders were challenged with much traffic and an extremely dusty track surface. This was confirmed by an assortment of falls, not least for Espargaro himself who went down within the first five minutes.
Adding to the early surprises, Nakagami – another pace-setter so far this weekend – was stuck in his garage with problems.
Amid the early dramas, the Marc VDS bike of Redding headed the timesheets and appeared to be losing less ground on the start/finish straight than in previous sessions.
He eventually settled for fourth place as Espargaro surprised many – very much including himself – to pick up a remarkable half a second in the final sector alone, sealing the top spot with 2’00.882.
One and a half tenths cover the top three, with Nakagami – deprived of a career-first pole by just over a tenth - eventually managing 15 laps as Kallio improved his personal best in the last knockings.
In Moto3, Red Bull rider Luis Salom of Spain grabbed the top spot onthe grid with a time of 2’07.229 on his KTM bike.
Team Calvo rider Maverick Vinales was second with a time of 2.07.337 whereas Alex Rins of Spain secured the third spot on the front grid with a time of 2’07.596.
Jonas Folger, (2’07.894), Miguel Oliveira (2’08.409) and Alan Techer (2’08.471) completed the list on the second grid.
The Moto3 race today starts at 7pm whereas Moto2 riders kick-off proceedings at 8:20pm.
The Peninsula
