Zarco Smashes Pole Record In Assen

Jun 26, 2015
2 min read

Johann Zarco will start tomorrow's 2015 Dutch TT from pole position after smashing the lap record in qualifying. The Ajo Motorsport rider has been holding something in reserve all weekend and finally let the world know what that was when he blitzed the rest with a lap of 1:36.346.

Tito Rabat will be left downhearted by this lap as he'd prior to this sat atop the time sheets with a lap of 1:36.887, chipping away at that over the subsequent laps. At this stage the Marc VDS rider was half-a-second clear of the rest and looked towards consistent laps to finish the session. He had no answer to Zarco in the latter stages.

Sam Lowes completed the front row, managing to get to within two tenths of Rabat's time. The Briton needs a podium this weekend to get his title challenge back on track. Assen yields bad memories for the Speed Up rider who crashed out of a potential win at last years wet event. He'll be hoping to put that behind him this weekend.

Simon Corsi crashed seven minutes into the session having just put his Forward Racing Kalex onto the front row. The team managed to get him back out but it was only for a solitary sighting lap as the bike still had some underlying technical issues. Despite this the Italian will still start the race from 4th and, having shown good form through practice, he could well be on for a rostrum tomorrow.

Jonas Folger completed the top five, with Xavier Simeon, Alex Rins, Tom Luthi, Lorenzo Baldassarri and Takaaki Nakagami making up the rest of the top ten.

Alex Marquez was having a good session in 9th when he crashed at turn one in the final five minutes. The Marc VDS rider was unhurt but his tumble dropped him back to 11th. Rathapark Wilairot also crashed late in the session at the final chicane.

QP Top 10:

1st Johann Zarco, Ajo Motorsport Kalex, 1:36.346

2nd Tito Rabat, EG 0,0 Marc VDS Kalex, 1:36.633

3rd Sam Lowes, Speed Up Racing, 1:36.878

4th Simone Corsi, Athina Forward Racing Team Kalex, 1:37.393

5th Jonas Folger, AGR Team Kalex, 1:37.434

6th Xavier Simeon, Federal Oil Gresini Moto2 Kalex, 1:37.509

7th Alex Rins, Paginas Amarillas HP 40 Kalex, 1:37.543

8th Tom Luthi, Derendinger Racing Interwetten Kalex, 1:37.585

9th Lorenzo Baldassarri, Athina Forward Racing Team Kalex, 1:37.591

10th Takaaki Nakagami, Idemitsu Honda Team Asia Kalex, 1:37.598

Full results can be found here: