2018 Le Mans Moto2 Qualifying Result: Early Bird Gets The Worm

The usual scenic excursions were nothing new for Moto2 but the final front row picture was a different story altogether. Pecco Bagnaia had only tentatively dipped into the top five prior to this session but the Italian set camp at the top of the timesheets on lap four and there was no moving him. There were a few attempts from the likes of Xavi Vierge and Alex Marquez but the SKY rider went unchallenged to the flag and scored his first pole position in the intermediate class.

Vierge was a safe second for the entire length of the session but his final chase for pole ended in the gravel trap in turn nine. Meanwhile, Lorenzo Baldassarri seemed lost throughout the weekend but he pulled a front row start out of the bag when needed, four tenths down on his flatmate but a lot faster than anything else he had showed until that point.

Joan Mir demonstrated good speed all weekend but did not look like a serious threat to Bagnaia’s dominance, half a second off and opening the second row of the grid. If practice was anything to go by, the odds for a pole from Marcel Schrotter looked quite good but the German could not do better than fifth in the end. Alex Marquez was extremely and consistently fast in the first two sectors but the rest are pretty important too and it was where the Spaniard repeatedly lost his advantage in the fight for pole. He will line up sixth, only five thousandths of a second separating him from the man ahead.

Sam Lowes had a very Sam Lowes kind of session, crashing out twice but his fastest time still good enough for seventh position. Brad Binder came out of almost literally nowhere to grab eighth on a track he had not previously ridden on a Moto2 machine. Third row of the grid was completed by Simone Corsi, seven tenths down on pole.

Miguel Oliveira found a small improvement from earlier this morning and climbed onto the fourth row of the grid, ahead of Mattia Pasini – who also graced a gravel trap – and rookie Romano Fenati.

Results: