Moto2 Argentina: Vierge braves the rain to snatch late pole
Xavi Vierge found grip late in the session, chipping away at his lap time with a final brave run on the limit giving him his first ever Moto2 pole position ahead of round two of the championship in Argentina.
Vierge had been the first rider to show grip was improving as the track became wetter and as the chequered flag waved in the worst weather of the day, he posted the fastest lap, his best of 1m 56.137s securing him the top spot on the grid.
The Dynavolt Intact GP rider is joined on the front row by fellow Kalex man Lorenzo Baldassarri, who had looked to have set an unbeatable time for Pons HP40 before late progress finally came in the closing minutes, leaving him 0.271s shy of pole.
Danny Kent also moved up the timesheets late on with his final attack bringing third for Speed Up in the tricky conditions, and marks Kent’s best qualifying to date in the intermediate class.
The very experienced Mattia Pasini made the most of his track time for fourth for Italtrans, with Jorge Navarro scoring his equal best Moto2 grid start in fifth for Federal Oil Gresini. Row two was completed by Sam Lowes ( Swiss Innovative Investors) who dropped a little to sixth as the last of the fast riders crossed the line.
Miguel Oliveira sat on pole at Termas De Rio Hondo last year but today could only manage seventh for Red Bull KTM Ajo. Also starting from row three are title contender Alex Marquez, who’s early crash forced him to leave it late to set a competitive time on his EG 0,0 Marc VDS machine to collect eighth and Remy Gardner, who showed his wet weather competency when he topped the timesheets in the soggy FP3 session before claiming ninth in qualifying for Tech 3.
Joe Roberts was another of the late improvers, after a run of good laps his final effort elevated him to tenth, the top rookie in the session on the unfancied NTS entry for RW Racing.
Romano Fenati was left everything to do after his team strategy saw him still sat in the pits with only fifteen minutes of the session remaining. He did improve as the wet created grip, but not as much as those with more track time under their belt and starts 19th, just ahead of ex-MotoGP rider Hector Barbera in 20th.
