Moto2: Martin Secures First Moto2 Pole

The Moto2 World Championship returned to competitive action today as the second qualifying session of the season took place under the southern Spanish sun. 

In Q1, Fabio Di Giannantonio was the fastest rider and advanced to Q2. The Italian was joined in moving through to the second session by Xavi Vierge, Hafizh Syahrin and Joe Roberts. 

Q2 was dominated by Jorge Martin, who was on provisional pole position by over three tenths of a second for the majority of the 15-minute session. The early pace by the Spaniard was enough to secure his first Moto2 pole, although the gap was cut towards the end by Jorge Navarro who qualified second, 0.181 seconds off of Martin’s time. Joining the two Spaniards on the front row will be Sam Lowes, who is in need of points on his Marc VDS debut after missing the opening round of the season in Qatar. 

The two Sky Racing Team VR46 riders, Luca Marini and Marco Bezzecchi, qualified fourth and fifth, respectively, and the teammates will be joined on the second row by the rookie, Aron Canet; whilst on row three, Marcel Schrotter will start ahead of current championship leader Tetsuta Nagashima and Xavi Vierge. 

Lorenzo Baldassarri has had a somewhat quiet weekend. The Italian continued that in qualifying, although will be disappointed to have dropped from row three to row four at the end, ultimately qualifying tenth. Enea Bastianini and Remy Gardner will join Baldassarri on the fourth row; whilst Edgar Pons will start ahead of Hector Garzo and Hafizh Syahrin on the fifth row; and Joe Roberts will start ahead of Jake Dixon and Fabio Di Giannantonio on the sixth row. Di Giannantonio’s Q2 efforts were hampered by a crash and subsequent fire at the beginning of the session, and although Speed Up were able to get the bike ready to go out again, Di Giannantonio was unable to improve on 18th.

Tom Luthi was perhaps the biggest disappointment of qualifying, as he will start down in 19th, ahead of Nicolo Bulega and Simone Corsi; whilst Bo Bendsneyder, Stefano Manzi and Augusto Fernandez will comprise the seventh row. Row eight will consist of the rookie Marcos Ramirez, Somkiat chantra and reigning Moto3 World Champion, Lorenzo Dalla Porta who is having a slightly better time in Jerez compared to the season opener in Qatar aboard his Italtrans Kalex.

The final row sees Andi Izdihar starting ahead of Jesko Raffin and Kasma Daniel Kasmayudin.