Another front row start for Simon

The Moto2 class is not getting any less tight as the sessions go on, and the Grand Prix of Spain enjoyed yet another close qualifying session in the intermediate class. The equality of the single-engine class was shown on the timesheets on Saturday afternoon, although the Sunday race may be another matter. Twenty riders were within the same second for a large chunk of the session, although the elite had to be on the ball in order to keep their spots at the top. Simón and Elías are the two home riders with the best chance of victory, although they will have it hard with the strong form of Tomizawa and Takahashi from Japan. How the race pans out will be revealed at 12.30pm local time, at the Grand Prix of Spain.

Mapfre’s Julián Simón was once again denied pole position by the smallest of margins, pushing with a late lap for a home top spot. The new swing arm for his RSV provided him with some unfortunate chattering issues in the morning, so he discarded the new part after placing sixteenth. In qualifying he was continuously at the business end of the timesheet, and ended the day in second at just 0.002 off pole.

Julián Simón 1.44.374 (19 laps): “I am very happy, because this weekend wasn’t going well and we were nearly able to snatch pole. The team have fought hard to give me a good bike and make me comfortable, and we tried a new swingarm that arrived this week. We pushed it in order to go faster, but in the end we left it to one side because it wasn’t working out as we had expected. We returned to what we had and overcame the problem of bouncing and lacking grip, so I am satisfied with the job that the team have done. Thanks to them I will have the pace for a good race tomorrow. I practiced starts at the end of every session and feel confident in that, so I hope to take off well tomorrow from second and get out of danger on the first corner.”