Championship leader and current form man, Johann Zarco, took pole position in the dying stages of qualifying. However, the session was disrupted thanks to a red flag that was brought out with five minutes to go after Thomas Luthi had a big high-side at Turn 9.
Alex Marquez was top for most of the session as he put in a very fast time in the first 10 minutes. Track temperatures started to climb in the middle part of the session bringing them outside of the Dunlop tyre’s optimal working range, leading to no notable improvements. This was until Thomas Luthi had a big crash at Turn 9 and the red flag was brought out as he was carried away. Sandro Cortese also had a crash at T8, just after Luthi, before the red flag was brought out.
After the red flag, the battle for pole was between Sam Lowes and Zarco. It was Zarco that managed to jump to the top on his first lap but on the second and final lap Lowes was up on Zarco’s time. Lowes managed to go quicker but Zarco, following right behind him, immediately got pole back by improving his time further.
Marquez couldn’t improve after the red flag but still ended up 3rd. This was his debut front row in the intermediate class. He will start ahead of Takaaki Nakagami, Luthi and Franco Morbidelli on the 2nd row. Alex Rins took 7th place, which was a good result after languishing down in 14th until the final stint.
Danny Kent and Jonas Folger will be joining the championship contender on row 3. Lorenzo Baldassarri will start 20th after falling early in the session and losing all confidence when he returned to track. He could be a man to watch though as he has shown glimpses of great speed so far this weekend.
