Smith storms to Misano pole

Bradley Smith will start the 125cc Gran Premio Aperol di San Marino e della Riviera di Rimini from pole position on Sunday, after setting a hot lap of 1’43.329 on his final turn of the session. That delivered the Bancaja Aspar rider his second pole of the 2010 season, as he continues his quest for a first win of the campaign.

Smith beat Championship leader Marc Márquez (Red Bull Ajo Motorsport) – who had led until the dying moments of the session – to top spot on the timesheet by 0.158s, with the Brit’s team-mate Nico Terol, who was second in last year’s race, third. Pol Espargaró (Tuenti Racing) will complete a strong front row as he was the final rider to get within half a second of Smith’s time.

Row two of the 125cc grid will be comprised of Tomoyoshi Koyama (Racing Team Germany), Sandro Cortese (Avant Mitsubishi Ajo), Efrén Vázquez (Tuenti Racing) and Esteve Rabat (Blusens-STX), whilst Danny Webb (Andalucia Cajasol) and Johann Zarco (WTR San Marino Team) completed the top ten.

There were crashes during the session for Marcel Schrötter (Interwetten Honda 125), Randy Krummenacher (Stipa-Molenaar Racing) and wild card Alessandro Tonucci (Junior GP).