Saturday, April 7, 2012
The Swiss pilot of the Interwetten Paddock maintains his dominance in the qualifying session and wins the first pole position of the 2012 season ahead of Marc Márquez and Andrea Iannone.
Scaling up a weekend so far impeccable, Thomas Lüthi has scored this Saturday the first pole of the season in Moto2 ™ thanks to a time of 2.00187, signed in the first minutes of the qualifying session, after completing just three laps. After dominating the three previous free rounds held on Thursday and Friday, the Swiss Interwetten Paddock has not found who will be ahead in today’s session. The record of the man who commands in the intermediate category at the start of the Championship has been just 19 thousandths of the record of the pole of 20011 (S.Bradl, 2.00.168).
Marc Márquez (Team CatalunyaCaixa Repsol), protagonist of a weekend of less to more, was the closest to the Swiss’s performance. The Lleida has been about 72 thousandths that make foresee a very open duel for the race on Sunday, with Andrea Iannone (Speed Master) as insurance participant after securing the third and last place on the grid.
Pol Espargaró (Pons 40 HP Tuenti), Mike di Meglio (Speed Master) and Max Neukirchner (Kiefer Racing) have completed a second row at least unexpected. Of the top 6 have been Esteve Rabat (Pons 40 HP Tuenti), seventh and Claudio Corti (Italtrans Racing Team), who has signed the eighth place.
Julián Simón (Blusens Avintia) will start from the fourth row of the grid after qualifying 11th. Toni Elías (Mapfre Aspar Team) has occupied the 17th place while his partner Nico Terol will debut in the race in the category starting from 26th place.
(QP) Moto2 timed practice
Luthi takes the pole; Márquez takes a second out of the hat
The Swiss Thomas Luthi will start tomorrow’s Moto2 race from the pole thanks to a brilliant and very fast lap shot in 2.00.187, confirming the regularity and solidity that he has exhibited throughout the weekend. However, the impact on the qualification of the intermediate category was given by Marc Márquez, who took a second off the hat to achieve second place at only 0.072 seconds. Iannone will start third, from the front row.
The second line of the grid will be led by Pol Espargaró with the Kalex of the Pons Team, ahead of Di Meglio and Neikirchner, who have finally overtaken Tiro Rabat, who with the other Kales Pons has been, finally seventh and will start from the third row.
In any case, the three Spanish riders, Márquez, Espargaró and Rabat, it seems that they will be the spearheads of our motorcycling in this first race of the year of Moto2, which after this qualification is expected more open and exciting than ever.
As we have indicated in the previous one, Marc was saving a second during the free practice, in which he did not want to show his full potential, keeping it for today. Marc, who had ridden in the free time with a better time of 2.00.2, has lowered today to 2.01.4, showing that he will be in the fight for victory from the first day, although his preseason has been shorter and atypical than that of its rivals.
