Johann Zarco took pole with a massive gap of over two seconds to second-placed man Franco Morbidelli on a drying Sepang circuit. Axel Pons made a surprise appearance on the front row after a late change to slick tyres.
At the start of the session conditions were still reasonably wet. This could’ve turned out to be the best conditions, as in Moto3 qualifying when the track was greasy it offered less grip than when it was fully wet.
It would turn out though that the Dunlop wet tyres would work nicely for the Moto2 bikes as the track dried and times improved over the session as per normal. Zarco and Lorenzo Baldassarri traded times for much of the session until Jonas Folger briefly went to the top of the standings. The last 11 minutes would be a masterclass from Zarco, however.
He would take top spot with a 2m21.8s and improve by four tenths and then another four tenths over the next two laps, finding time where other riders couldn’t. Franco Morbidelli took top spot while Zarco pitted to put on fresh wet tyres, but after this stop Zarco went to another level. He went pole by a second with a 2m19.7s and then would find another 1.1 seconds on his final lap.
A few riders decided to roll the dice and put on slicks tyres. Axel Pons was one such rider, putting both front and rear slick tyres on. Most others who went to dry tyres only tried the rear (Lorenzo Baldassarri being one of them). The gamble massively paid off for Axel and he would take a fantastic third, his first front row since Phillip Island 2015, even if it was 2.762 seconds off the pole time.
The mixed conditions brought many surprises to the grid order. Folger and Thomas Luthi were 4th and 5th ahead of Baldassarri but the third row saw impressive performances from Xavier Simeon, Mattia Pasini and Remy Gardner. Sam Lowes was a disappointing 13th, Takaaki Nakagami was 20th and Alex Rins’ title hopes have taken a further knock with him in a disastrous 23rd.
Tomorrow could see the tile wrapped up. Zarco needs to gain three points on Thomas Luthi which is most easily done by a win. Alex Rins can only realistically stay in the title fight by getting up near the top 10 and Zarco hitting big problems with Luthi not winning.
