After taking a best dry result last time out Qatar in second, British Talent Team rider John McPhee has backed that up with his first pole position since 2015.
The Scottish rider was strong throughout qualifying, sitting atop the timing tower on a number of occasions across the 40-minute session. As many bailed into the pits, McPhee stayed out and posted a 1m49.094s to return to the top of the pile.
With pit lane emptying in the final seven minutes, McPhee hung back and let the masses disappear to give himself some clear track. This turned out to be unnecessary, as rain began to fall as soon as he took to the circuit.
The British Talent Team rider was put under a little pressure in the final seconds, as Nicolo Bulega and Aron Canet began lighting up the timing screens. However, the pair got stuck in traffic and dropped time in the middle of the lap.
Bulega was able to improve and move himself up to second, 0.154s off of McPhee, who’ll start on pole for the second time in his career. Qatar pole man Jorge Martin completed the front row, with Canet missing out by a tenth in the end in fourth.
Fabio Di Giannantonio put in an impressive performance on his Gresini Honda to complete the top five, seven thousandths of a second quicker than Romano Fenati. Juanfran Guevara was a late improver in seventh.
Andrea Migno will be disappointed to be starting eighth having sat on provisional pole at one stage in the session. He heads SIC58 Honda’s Tatsuki Suzuki, who takes a career best qualifying result from himself and the team. Philipp Oettl rounded out the top 10.
Darryn Binder headed Livio Loi in 11th, with home favourite Gabriel Rodrigo getting caught out by the weather in 13th. Joan Mir’s charge was also derailed by the sudden rain fall and will start from a lowly 16th.
Twitter: Horrendous start to the session for @AlbertArenas75, super glad to report he got up & walked away from this!
… https://t.co/2wK2Az12Wj (@MotoGP)
Aspar rider Albert Arenas suffered a nasty highside in the opening five minutes of the session and was taken to the medical centre. Passed fit to continue, he returned to the track in the closing stages to go 19th quickest.
