Elías secures the first ever Moto2 pole

Toni Elías took pole position for the first ever Moto2 race at the Commercialbank Grand Prix of Qatar, after he posted the only sub-2’02” lap in qualifying on Saturday evening.

Former MotoGP rider Elías, who in 2010 competes for the Gresini Racing Moto2 team on board a Moriwaki chassis, went round in a best time of 2’01.904 at the end of the session as only a second separated the top 13 on the grid, further highlighting the high level of competitiveness that is set to run throughout the campaign.

At just 0.128s behind Elías, 125cc World Champion Julián Simón (Mapfre Aspar) ensured he will start from second position after he also made a late surge on his RSV prototype. Stefan Bradl (Viessmann Kiefer Racing) – who had been quickest in free practice on his Suter – was third at only six-thousandths of a second further back, with Alex de Angelis (RSM Team Scot) making it four different chassis manufacturers on the front row as he placed his Force GP210 amongst the race contenders.

Yuki Takahashi (Tech3 Racing) was fifth with a time of 2’02.295, ahead of Jules Cluzel of the Forward Racing team. Takahashi’s team-mate Raffaele De Rosa joined the duo on the second row, as did Alex Debón (Aeroport de Castelló-Ajo) who set the eighth-fastest time of the qualifying session.

Completing the top ten was Shoya Tomizawa (Technomag-CIP) and Alex Baldolini (Caretta Technology Race Dept), whilst British rider Scott Redding (Marc VDS Racing Team) improved his time from practice to qualify in 17th position amongst the 41-strong grid that is due to start Sunday’s race.