Iannone continues pole dominance

Andrea Iannone’s fourth pole of the season – his third in succession – was confirmed at Sachsenring on Saturday as the Fimmco Speed Up rider qualified fastest with a lap of 1’24.982, making him the only sub-1’25” rider and placing him 0.673s clear at the top of the timesheet.

The Italian, who will tomorrow go for his third win of the season, will be joined on the front row by Arne Tode (Racing Team Germany), who delighted the home crowd by qualifying in second position. Just nine-thousandths of a second behind him was Championship leader Toni Elías (Gresini Racing), who had a crash late on in the session from which he walked away uninjured. Completing the front row will be Julián Simón (Mapfre Aspar), with a gap of 0.776s separating him from the pole position holder.

The second row will be comprised of Iannone’s team-mate Gabor Talmacsi, Simone Corsi (JiR Moto2), another German rider in Stefan Bradl (Viessmann Kiefer Racing) on his return from injury, and Shoya Tomizawa (Technomag-CIP).

Ricky Cardús had a crash in his first qualifying session as a new addition to the Maquinza-SAG Team, with Jules Cluzel (Forward Racing) also experiencing a fall. Thomas Lüthi (Interwetten Moriwaki Racing), currently second in the Championship, qualified in 21st having had a difficult session in which he had a run off.