Iannone snatches Aragón Moto2 pole

Andrea Iannone put in a fine last lap in the Gran Premio A-Style de Aragón qualifying session to take his fifth Moto2 pole position of the season on Saturday. The Italian’s effort of 1’55.148 delivered him top spot on the timesheet ahead of Scott Redding by a margin of 0.041s.

The 17 year-old Marc VDS Racing rider looked all set for his first-ever World Championship pole as he led for the final stages of the session, but a third successive front-row start will not be of any disappointment to the Brit. Following him was Alex de Angelis (JiR Moto2) at just five-thousandths of a second behind, with Julián Simón (Mapfre Aspar) – currently second in the Championship standings – completing the front row of the grid.

A slow-speed fall for Simone Corsi (JiR Moto2) did little to dent his confidence and he closed the session in fifth position with another Italian, Claudio Corti (Forward Racing) following closely behind. Gabor Talmacsi (Fimmco Speed Up) was seventh and an impressive substitute ride from Michele Pirro for the Gresini Racing team saw the Italian secure a second-row start.

Championship leader Toni Elías (Gresini Racing) qualified in 12th place at 0.690s off Iannone’s pace and had a minor crash at turn one, whilst Thomas Lüthi (Interwetten Moriwaki) who is currently third in the standings will start from 20th on grid. British wild card Kev Coghlan (Monlau Joe Darcey) qualified in 13th.

There were falls during the session for Axel Pons (Tenerife 40 Pons), Raffaele de Rosa (Tech 3 Racing) and Karel Abraham (Cardio ab Motoracing), all of whom were uninjured.