Elías on pole at Misano

Toni Elías secured his second pole position of the 2010 season – his first since the opening round in Qatar – on Saturday, as he primed himself for an attempt at a sixth win of the season this weekend at Misano. The Spaniard’s best time of 1’38.991 was enough to beat young Brit Scott Redding to pole by 0.044s in the Gresini Moto2 team’s home GP.

Redding took his second successive front row position for the Marc VDS Racing Team having finished on the podium from third in Indianapolis, with Julián Simón (Mapfre Aspar) third at just over two-tenths behind. Jules Cluzel of the Forward Racing team will complete the front file of the grid for tomorrow’s race.

Andrea Iannone’s session was cut short by a mechanical problem but the Fimmco Speed Up rider still managed to hold onto fifth position at 0.435s off Elías’ time, and he will head up a second row that also includes JiR Moto2 duo Simone Corsi and home rider Alex de Angelis along with Shoya Tomizawa (Technomag-CIP).

Mattia Pasini qualified in ninth as he continued his impressive weekend as a wild card for the Italtrans STR team, with Gabor Talmacsi (Fimmco Speed Up) completing the top ten.

There were crashes in the session for Dominique Aegerter (Technomag-CIP) who qualified in 12th, Michael Ranseder (Vector Kiefer Racing) in 22nd and Raffaele de Rosa (Tech 3 Racing) in 28th – all three avoided any problems as a result of their falls.