Moto2 Austria: Untouchable Bagnaia holds on for pole, Vierge injured
Early pace again proved key as Francesco Bagnaia could not be caught, holding on to claim the top spot on the grid ahead of the Moto2 Austrian Grand Prix.
The Sky Racing VR46 Kalex rider posted an untouchable 1m29.409s with still over half an hour of the session remaining, and although there were some late improvements his best remained good enough for pole.
The Italian could not try to beat his own time in the final stages as both he and Lorenzo Baldassarri appeared to run out of fuel.
Miguel Oliveira, who currently leads the championship by two points over Bagnaia, claimed second as he continues to see improvements in his qualifying performance, with a tweak to the Red Bull KTM Ajo strategy at their home round leaving him just 0.310s behind the lead time.
Third went to Fabio Quartararo who impressed on the Speed Up, though his session was not without issue - he missed the final minutes after his dashboard started flashing battery warnings at him.
Jorge Navarro gained time late on to improve to fourth for Gresini. He is joined on row two by Alex Marquez, who dropped from a best of provisional third following an unusual slip from his EG 0,0 Marc VDS machine.
Mattia Pasini also made late gains to climb to sixth for Italtrans, as did Marcel Schrotter in seventh for Dynavolt Intact GP.
Brad Binder gained a top ten start on his birthday in eighth on the second Red Bull entry, while Baldassarri came back from a crash on his Pons HP 40 bike to claim ninth.
Luca Marini’s fall with 22 minutes of the session left saw his bike stop in the middle of the track at turn seven and leave debris behind after being moved, causing the session to be red-flagged allowing the track to be cleared.
He did not return to track quickly enough for a final flying lap, leaving him to slip down to tenth on the second Sky Racing bike, a disappointing result for the Italian who has made great progress of late including pole in Brno.
Romano Fenati was the best of the rookies in 15th for Marinelli Snipers. Joan Mir (EG 0,0 Marc VDS) had been lapping well before a fall dented his chances, leaving him down in 20th.
It was also a tough day for the Brits with Sam Lowes (Swiss Innovative Investors)the best of the pair in 16th just ahead of Danny Kent (Speed Up) in 17th.
Wild-card Xavi Cardelus (Team Stylobike) will starts 32nd .
A crash right at the start of the session saw Steven Odendaal collide with the rear of Xavi Vierge - the Spanish rider was taken to the medical centre, his bike tangled with him as they travelled off track. He was later declared unfit to race tomorrow, diagnosed with a right wrist fracture.
