Espargaro bounces back for strong pole position battle, Rabat in 11th, Pons happy with 14th
In contrast to yesterday and this morning, the weather was a little more kind to the Moto2 riders for the qualifying session at Motorland Aragon this afternoon and allowed a fight for pole position in dry conditions.
Pol Espargaró looked like the man to take top spot in the final minute of the session, but with the chequered flag already out he lost the pole position to Italian Simone Corsi. So the Tuenti Móbil HP 40 rider will fight for victory from the second position on the grid with another Italian next to him in third, Andrea Iannone.
Tito Rabat and Axel Pons will start their home race from the fourth and fifth row of the grid, respectively. Rabat has the pace to once again fight for a podium finish while Pons is looking to score his first top ten result of the season.
2. POL ESPARGARÓ, 1.54.534 “We went out on track without any references as the three practice sessions were in the wet or rainy and it’s been a difficullt qualifying. We couldn’t do tyre tests and took a gamble with it, although we were looking to get a laptime we couldn’t work for the race and we have to dive into it with less information than usual. I’ve only missed pole position by a whisker, but in these conditions this second place is good and tomorrow we aim to win in front of the fans.”
11. TITO RABAT, 1.55.074 “I have some problems in the third sector and I think if I can get it right with changes in the warmup we can achieve a great result. In the wet I didn’t feel comfortable at all and in the dry we greatly improved the performance. The position on the grid is maybe not the best, but I’m only 0.4 seconds behind the top three and have a pace which makes me confident ahead of the race.”
14. AXEL PONS, 1.55.275 “I’m happy, because I think despite the difficulties we did good work and got the best grid position of the year. I hope tomorrow we can have a dry race and although we have to try some things in the warmup I’m convinced I can take points. It’s been four sessions in tricky conditions and riding in the dry was a lottery, because we haven’t done a single lap in these conditions.”
Source: Pons Racing Press Release
