Miguel Oliveira will start tomorrow’s 23-lap Argentine Grand Prix from pole position after edging Franco Morbidelli in a frantic Moto2 qualifying.
The track was still damp in places as the Moto2 riders took to the track for their 45-minute qualifying session, but several of them threw the dice and opted for slick tyres.
One such rider was Marc VDS Racing’s Alex Marquez, who went a second clear of the field with a 1m54.952s in the opening minutes as the rain began to intensify. With slick runners beginning to struggle, the Spaniard looked to have played a blinder.
However, the rain soon stopped and a distinct dry line appeared. This saw times tumble and provisional pole change hands frequently, with Marquez, Mattia Pasini, Danny Kent, Lorenzo Baldassarri, Sandro Cortese and Oliveira all taking turns at the top of the timesheets.
As the session drew to a close, Oliveira twisted the screw and raised his benchmark to a 1m45.616s to take a maiden pole for both himself and KTM by a mere 0.098s from championship leader Morbidelli.
Marquez will be disappointed the weather never worsened in the opening stages of the session, but still managed to put his Kalex on the front row in third. Tom Luthi only just held off Interwetten team-mate Jesko Raffin for fourth, whilst Pasini impressively completed row two.
Cortese ended the session seventh fastest and half a second down on his Dynavolt Suter, with Tech 3’s Xavi Vierge, Tasca Racing’s Xavier Simeon and Baldassarri rounding out the top 10 ahead of Forward team-mate Luca Marini and Kiefer’s Kent.
Sky Racing VR46’s Francesco Bagnaia was quick in this morning’s damp FP3, and carried that form over into qualifying to put his Kalex 13th on the grid. Wet weather specialist Hafizh Syahrin was 14th and Axel Pons 15th.
