Lowes Leaps To Mugello Pole

May 30, 2015
2 min read

Sam Lowes took a second career pole position after smashing the lap record is a fragmented 45-minute qualifying session for the Speed Up rider. The Briton suffered a crash 15-minutes in; Sam lost the front of his bike at turn four. Fortunately he was able to push the bike downhill into pit-lane (turn seven can be cut to get back into the pits in the interest of time) and get the gravel removed. With 15-minutes left he returned to the track to go top with a 1:51.514, nearly a second quicker than Pol Espargaro's record from 2012.

Dominique Aegerter was the surprise of the day. The Swiss rider has struggled hugely to get to grips with the 2015 Kalex frame, switching from Suter upon which he won at the Sachsenring. He was knocking on the top 15 in practice, but blew away everyone's expectations by putting his Technomag bike 2nd on the grid.

Tito Rabat could only manage 3rd after looking demon-quick on Friday. His practice runs suggest the Marc VDS Kalex rider has more to offer tomorrow, and he'll need to conjure that if he is to get his first win of the 2015 season.

Tom Luthi missed out on a front row start by five-thousandths of a second right at the end of the session, but he'll nonetheless be happy with how his Saturday went. Don't discount him to continue his form from France.

Luis Salom put in a decent session to end up 5th fastest on his Paginas Amarillas HP 40 Kalex. Team-mate Alex Rins will start 9th after a tricky start to the weekend for the team.

Johnn Zarco was a disappointing 6th on the Ajo Motorsport Kalex after finishing FP3 3rd. I still think he has the pace to fight at the front, but he'll need a good start to avoid getting swallowed up by the pack in the early stages.

Simone Corsi will start 7th for his home race, with Xavier Simeon, Alex Rins and Axel Pons completing the top ten.

Pons crashed late in the session, as did Sandro Cortese, Florian Alt, Robin Mulahuser and Julian Simon. All were unhurt.

Qualifying Top 10:

1st Sam Lowes, Speed Up Racing, 1:51.514 (Lap Record)

2nd Dominique Aegerter, Technomag Racing Interwetten Kalex, 1:51.856

3rd Tito Rabat, Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS Kalex, 1:51.874

4th Tom Luthi, Derendinger Racing Interwetten Kalex, 1:51.879

5th Luis Salom, Paginas Amarillas HP 40 Kalex, 1:52.120

6th Johann Zarco, Ajo Motorsport Kalex, 1:52.140

7th Simone Corsi, Athina Forward Racing Team Kalex, 1:52.144

8th Xavier Simeon, Federal Oil Gresini Team Moto2 Kalex, 1:52.155

9th Alex Rins, Paginas Amarilla HP 40 Kalex, 1:52.240