2019 Valencia Moto2 Qualifying Result: Practice Lies

A whole 17 degrees warmed up the action ahead of the final qualifying session of the day and the intermediate class rose to the occasion, only half a second deciding the top 15 positions on the grid. Somewhat unexpectedly, Fabio Di Giannantonio placed the first bid for pole position, the rookie setting the fastest time early on before promptly joining the gravel trap at turn five. While the Italian’s stricken machine was finding a way back to the garage, his time stood until the final three minutes of the session, when action really heated up. In the blink of an eye, Di Giannantonio went from pole to off the front row, leaving Jorge Navarro to claim pole position and bring some joy to the home crowd. Navarro even found a way to improve the lap record that was already challenged a couple of times this weekend.

Jorge Martin came near to closing his already impressive rookie season with a pole position - two hundredths of a second close - but had to make do with second grid position. However, the big surprise of the front row was Stefano Manzi, the Italian bringing MV Agusta into the limelight after scoring his first top ten in the intermediate class. Despite having a more modest showing in practice, Luca Marini converted it into a second row start, ahead of Tom Luthi and with Di Giannantonio dropping to sixth. Practice miracle worker Brad Binder never really looked like a contender for pole by the time Q2 came about and will start seventh, opening row three for Augusto Fernandez and Enea Bastianini.

Despite being less than half a second down on pole, world champion Alex Marquez will have to start his final race of the reason from 15th grid position. A much more eventful session was had by Nicolo Bulega, the Italian looking fast in Q1 but a crash immediately after left him in doubt for Q2. His crew did an excellent job to allow him a few laps for a go at pole but 18th grid spot was the most that was on offer.

Results: