First Moto2 pole position for Julian Simon

Mapfre Aspar Julian Simón took his first pole position of the Moto2 era today after overcoming the dominance of Toni Elías and Scott Redding at Indianapolis with a breathtaking late charge. British teenager Redding looks like the only rider capable of breaking up the Spaniards at the front in tomorrow’s race, with Hector Faubel, Sergio Gadea and Fonsi Nieto also qualifying strongly. The only predictable thing about Moto2 racing, however, is its unpredictability and there are sure to be a few surprises tomorrow.

Simón made the headlines today with a final lap that avoided the thick traffic on track and improved his best time through each sector of the Indianapolis track. It was enough for pole position by 0.148 seconds from his nearest competitor and after narrowly missing out in Qatar and Jerez the current 125cc World Champion feels it is just reward for a lot of hard work in this new category. Julián also started from the front of the grid in the minor category race here on his way to the title last year.

1st Julián Simón 1.46.139 (17 laps): “I am really happy with this pole. I tried to push for a better time on the last lap, knowing that if I had clear track I could challenge for pole so I was delighted when it came off. In the final few minutes I had a lot of people around me, getting in each other’s way, so I had to push really hard to lose them. I got a good lap in and I’m delighted although the thing that pleases me most today is my race pace, which is really good and if we can repeat it tomorrow we should be fighting for the win. It is going to be a close race and there will be a lot of people fighting up front until things sort themselves out. Our set-up is good, it looks like we know what we need tomorrow and everything is in place to fight for our first win of the season, although we can’t get ahead of ourselves. We have tried a lot of new things over the past couple of days and I’m really pleased with the job the team have done because this wouldn’t have been possible without them. This track has a lot of bumps so we’ll have to avoid mistakes in the race otherwise it will be easy to crash.”

Source: Mapfre Aspar Team