Excellent performance in Phillip Island sees Pol Espargaró take 7th pole position of 2012

Pol Espargaró set his 7th pole position of the season in the circuit of Phillip Island with an amazing time of 1.33.705. The gap to Brit Scott Redding who qualified in second place is 559 thousands, the gap to third placed Marc Márquez 703 thousands. The rider of the Tuenti Móvil HP 40 smashed the 1.34 barrier five times, which his rivals weren’t able to match. His pace is evidently incredible and now he has to replicate it during the race.

Tito Rabat had many problems with the setup and in the end was able to put in one fast lap that secured him the 10th place and therefore the 4th row on the grid. This puts him directly in front of his team mate Axel Pons who will start from position 13 on row 5 of the grid. Axel and his team could successfully improve the bike and he was able to take almost 2 seconds off his day of Friday.
Both Tito and Axel hope to finish in the Top 10 and bring home more valuable points to improve their overall standing in the Moto2 championship.

POL ESPARGARÓ
This circuit is fun and I have a blast riding here, sweeping through corners and sliding the rear wheel. I was the quickest and the only one to get in the 1.33, but I know it will be a difficult race and that Redding and Márquez are two tough rivals. I know for certain that I’ll have a great time and that I will give everything to get the 25 points up for grabs. I feel very comfortable on the bike and I would love to prove this by a win. I feel strong and only hope that that we can race in the dry and that the weather will not ruin all the hard work we did during practice and qualifying like it did last Sunday in Malaysia.

TITO RABAT
I’m lacking grip on the bike and this gets punished on a track like Phillip Island. I managed to post a good time but couldn’t do it with confidence because I felt the front go in every fast corner. I hope we can find an improvement in warm up tomorrow as I want to be high up in the race to get as many points as possible.

AXEL PONS
In this circuit it took time to get the setup right and to find a good feeling on the bike, but we could see results today because I could improve yesterday’s time by almost two seconds. The team did a great job and I put in a lot of effort. I will start from the 5th row of the grid and my qualifying time is only half a second slower than the rider in 4th place and my pace should allow me to finish the race much higher up.

Source: Pons Racing