Tennor American Racing’s Joe Roberts stormed to pole position for Moto2, stealing the place from Spaniard Jorge Martin in the final seconds of the second qualifying session for the French GP.
Having been fastest in practice, the American No.16 rider automatically got through to Q2 where he showed his true colours and set a time of 1:36.256 to lead Sam Lowes, who will start just behind in P2.
The No.87 rider of Remy Gardner completes the front-row of the grid having stormed his way to P3 in the dying moments of Q2 and will start ahead of his team-mate Kasma Daniel, who crashed at Turn 5 during the first qualifying session.
Red Bull KTM Ajo pilot Jorge Martin was set to be the man on top of the pile having set a time of 1:36.522, but the Spaniard was later involved in a three-bike crash at Turn 3 which left him with fourth position on the grid for tomorrow’s race.
The other two riders involved were Martin’s team-mate Jorge Navarro and the MB Conveyors Speed Up rider of Fabio Di Giannantonio who will take up 18th and 11th respectively.
Gresini rider Nicolo Bulega also suffered a crash, this time in the first qualifying session, when he low-sided his bike into Turn 10 and as result will begin Sunday’s race from 20th position.
Championship leader Luca Marini secured a second-row, sixth-place for the VR46 team, placing him just behind his team-mate Marco Bezzechi who starts from fifth.
The start of qualifying looked challenging for Enea Bastianini as the Italian rider was trailing down the order, 1.8 seconds off of the pace, but the Italtrans rider was able to find enough pace to bag 9th.
Petronas Sprinta Racing’s Xavi Vierge filled 7th on the grid, followed by his team-mate, Briton’s Jake Dixon and MV Agusta Racing’s Stefano Manzi to round up the top ten places.
