Pole position and lap record for Tito Rabat at Motegi

An impressive performance from Tito Rabat saw the Moto2 World Championship leader claim pole position and a new outright lap record at Motegi this afternoon.

Yesterday Rabat closed to within 0.1s of the outright circuit record to end the day at the top of the timesheet, a position he also claimed during this morning’s final Moto2 free practice session.

The 25-year-old Spaniard carried this momentum into qualifying, where he took pole position from Tom Lüthi with a final flying lap that was 0.032s inside the existing circuit record, set by Pol Espargaro in 2012.

It is Rabat’s eighth pole position in 2014, equalling the record for the most poles in one season, again set by Espargaro in 2012.

Tito Rabat // Pole Position // 1’50.854
“I’m really happy with today’s pole position, as we did a good job together as a team and the bike was working well in qualifying. So everything is good, but I was losing a little time through the final sector, so this is something we need to look at for tomorrow. It will be a hard race, because it always is here at Motegi, especially at the start with a full fuel load. All we can do is try and find some further improvements for tomorrow and then prepare for a tough race.”

Source: Marc VDS Racing