Moto2 Austria: Record pace powers Nagashima to pole
Tetsuta Nagashima claimed a surprise pole as he looked at ease in Spileberg, turning up the pace to claim his first pole position at round eleven, the Moto2 Austrian Grand Prix.
The ONEXOX TKKR SAG Team rider set his best, a 1m 28.718s with ten laps to go with his record pace holding all the way to the chequered flag as the tricky, hot, conditions caught out many of the regular pole contenders.
Brad Binder came closest to toppling the Japanese rider, coming just 0.073s short for Red Bull KTM Ajo ahead of the team’s home race.
He prevented an all Kalex front row, with Thai rookie Somikat Chantra (Idemitsu Honda Team Asia) continuing to build on the promise he has shown at recent rounds for the final front row spot, blitzing his previous best qualifying performance of 19th in the process.
Enea Bastianini was the final rider to see the chequered flag, and gave Chantra a good run for third and top rookie honours, but came up just shy in fourth for Italtrans.
Tom Luthi gave his championship hopes a boot by scoring fifth on the grid with Dynavolt Intact GP - his fall last time saw him hand a huge advantage to race winner Alex Marquez (EG 0,0 Marc VDS) - but the championship leader and man to beat could not match his pace in qualifying and starts eleventh.
Lorenzo Baldassarri (Flexbox HP40) slipped to sixth in the closing stages, with Xavi Vierge claiming seventh for EG 0,0 Marc VDS.
Jorge Navarro was the top Speed Up rider in eighth, keeping Remy Gardner at bay on the second SAG Team entry.
Luca Marini was the best of the riders to progress from Q1 taking a top ten start on his birthday for Sky Racing VR46.
Further down the grid, Mattia Pasini, who originally broke the lap record in the morning in FP3, could not match his earlier performance - the Tasca Racing rider starts 15th.
Crashes were costly with both Marcel Schrotter (Dynavolt Intact GP) and Andrea Locatelli (Italtrans) unable to come back from their spills - they start 16th and 17th respectively.
Nicolo Bulega (Sky Racing Team VR46) was unlucky not to progress to the second half of qualifying, lighting up red sectors in all but the last part on the track to finish the session fifth - 19th on the grid.
Gresini’s Sam Lowes also failed to advance - a continuing tough weekend saw him stuck down in 24th for race day.
Fellow Brit Jake Dixon (Sama Qatar Angel Nieto Team) is just a few places further back in 27th bridging some of the gap after missing the whole of FP1 through bike issues.
Jonas Folger is back to replace Khairul Idham Pawi at Petronas again, he placed 22nd after Q1.
Dimas Ekky Pratama (Idemitsu Honda Team Asia) is also still unavailable, Teppei Nagoe sits in for him, he starts from 31st.
