Moto2: Valencia pole for Vierge as tyre choice costs Bastianini

Qualifying for the 13th round of the 2020 Moto2 World Championship took place in a gloomy Valencia, a the Ricardo Tormo circuit for the first of two races at the Spanish track. Enea Bastianini was the fastest rider coming into qualifying, although a wet track for qualifying meant that conditions were unpredictable. 

In Q1, the battle for the top four went down to the final moments, with Bo Bensneyder, Andi Izdihar and Jorge Navarro all on strong laps after the flag had gone out. Bensneyder got himself into fourth place with his lap before Izdihar went up to second, but Navarro was unable to get himself into a transfer spot, and missed out in fifth. That saved Luca Marini, who squoze into a Q2 spot in third, while Hafizh Syahrin topped the session despite a big crash for the Malaysian on Friday. 

In Q2, Sam Lowes looked nailed on for pole position for much of the session as he looked to continue his dominance from Aragon. However, late laps from Xavi vierge and Joe Roberts pushed the #22 back to third place, as Xavi Vierge took his first pole position of the season, the third of his career and his first outside of Argentina. 

Joining Vierge on the front row will be the aforementioned Roberts and Lowes, as the American, like Vierge, continues his search for a maiden World Championship victory, and Lowes looks to consolidate his position atop the World Championship. 

Remy Gardner also put in a late challenge for pole, but could only manage fourth in the end, and he will be joined by Marco Bezzecchi and Jorge Martin on the second row. 

Martin’s final lap meant that Luca Marini was pushed back to the third row and will start from seventh. The #10 re-injured the ankle he hurt in Le Mans between Aragon and Valencia, and that is making things more difficult for the former championship leader. The title is slipping from him, and with 25 points already in deficit to Lowes, Marini cannot afford to lose any more ground here. 

Alongside Marini on the third row will be Lorenzo Baldassarri, who looks to have regained some confidence this weekend, and his Flexbox HP 40 teammate, Hector Garzo; while Nicolo Bulega rounded out the qualifying top 10 and will start from the front of the fourth row, ahead of Fabio Di Giannantonio and Andi Izdihar, for whom 12th is a career best qualifying. 

In 13th place on the grid tomorrow will be Tom Luthi, alongside Bo Bendeneyder and Enea Bastianini, after the Italian paid the price for choosing to start Q2 on wet tyres rather than slicks as most of 18 riders in Q2 did. From the back of the fifth row, Bastianini will have a tough job to take any ground back on Lowes tomorrow, so it could be a damage limitation job for the #33.

Marcel Schrotter will head up the sixth row from Hafizh Syahrin and Simone Corsi, with the #24 being the slowest of the Q2 combatants. 

Jorge Navarro was the fastest rider to miss out on Q2, and will start from 19th alongside Aron Canet and Stefano Manzi on the seventh row; while Tetsuta Nagashima will head up row eight, after he crashed in the first session, alongside Edgar Pons and Kasma Daniel.

The ninth row will see Lorenzo Dalla Porta start ahead of Somkiat Chantra and Marcos Ramirez, while Piotr Biesiekirski will be alone on the 10th and final row in 28th, at the back of a reduced Moto2 field with both Jake Dixon and Augusto Fernandez missing out this weekend, Dixon having sustained a broken wrist on Friday and Fernandez having injured his foot.