Simón takes dramatic late pole

Julián Simón achieved his first Moto2 pole at Indianapolis on Saturday with a late surge in qualifying, posting a best time of 1’46.139 on his final lap to shoot to top spot on the starting grid for Sunday’s race.

Scott Redding had looked on course to convert his dominance of both practice sessions into a first ever World Championship pole, but his Marc VDS team-mate Héctor Faubel overtook him with a fantastic lap that moved him to the top. However, Simón eventually secured pole, 0.148s ahead of Faubel and with Redding just a further 0.047s down on his Spanish colleague. Simone Corsi (JiR Moto2) completed the front row in fourth place.

It was a tight affair on the second row with Anthony West (MZ Racing) taking fifth, just three-thousandths of a second ahead of Championship leader Toni Elías (Gresini Racing) who had a fall at turn six with ten minutes to go and climbed straight back on his bike. Ratthapark Wilairot (Thai Honda PTT Singha-SAG) and Sergio Gadea (Tenerife 40 Pons) were seventh and eight respectively.

There were falls in the session for Andrea Iannone (Fimmco Speed Up) – 26th – and Fonsi Nieto (G22 Holiday Gym) – 12th – who both had to go to the medical centre for attention, whilst Raffaele de Rosa (Tech 3 Racing) escaped such misfortune when he crashed, eventually qualifying in tenth.

Yusuke Teshima (JiR Moto2), who had a big crash in the morning practice session, was on track after suffering a bruised left foot and qualified 37th.