After Sam Lowes’ lap is cancelled due to track limits, Celestino Vietti moves up to pole – Marcel Schrötter only 13th on the grid after crash
VR46 youngster Celestino Vietti was able to celebrate his first pole in qualifying for the Moto2 season opener in Qatar. The Kalex rider benefited from a track limits offence by Sam Lowes, who lost his fastest lap and dropped from first to third, still behind Tony Arbolino (grid position).
For the second qualifying session of the day, the floodlights were already shining over the Losail track, but it was still light, albeit hazy. But the haze didn’t bother the Moto2 riders any more than it did their Moto3 colleagues.
In Q1, Albert Arenas, Fermin Aldeguer, Bo Bendsneyder and Barry Baltus got the ticket for the subsequent entry into the next qualifying section. In the process, Aldeguer was the only Boscoscuro rider to defy Kalex dominance and make it into the fastest 18 riders in Q2.
There, Somkiat Chantra caused yellow flags in the first run when he crashed in a highsider at turn 5. This led to some dropped times, which is why a first best time by Filip Salac initially remained unthreatened. Shortly afterwards, Pedro Acosta also went down, which again led to yellow flags.
With the track clear again, the two Marc VDS riders Lowes and Arbolino followed suit and passed Salac. Only Vietti managed to improve significantly in the last attempt and move into second place with a time of 1:59.082 minutes.
In fact, it turned into pole just a little later when race control announced that Lowes would lose his fastest lap time for disregarding the track limits at turn 15. The Briton dropped back to third, Vietti inherited first place.
Salac dropped off the front row after his early lead, but still celebrated a strong qualifying result with fourth on the grid. Joining him on the second row are Ai Ogura and Augusto Fernandez. Jake Dixon, who also had a lap dropped during the session, finished seventh.
Aldeguer finished eighth after his Q1 success, followed by Aron Canet and the crashed Acosta. Marcel Schrötter also had to cope with a crash and therefore did not make it past row five. For the German it was only enough for 13th place.
