Luthi Takes Pole at Rain Affected Sepang

Oct 24, 2015
2 min read

Thomas Luthi secured his first Moto2 pole position of the season at the Malaysian Grand Prix.

The Swiss rider smashed the previous pole position record set by Pol Espargaro in 2012 by over half a second with a 2m06.383s time early in the session. Rain and thunder affected the final 15 minutes of Moto2 qualifying which meant no rider was able to challenge Luthi's time. Therefore, Luthi claimed his first pole position since Qatar in 2012.

2015 Moto2 World Champion Johann Zarco looks to return to form this weekend after a rather subdued weekend at Phillip Island last week and showed encouraging pace to finish on the front row of the grid just one tenth behind Luthi. It is the 13th time from just 17 races this season and Zarco will be hoping to secure an eighth victory tomorrow. The winner from last weekend, Alex Rins, completes the front row of the grid.

Jonas Folger qualified another strong fourth place with an equally impressive Lorenzo Baldassarri in fifth. The young Italian secured his maiden podium at Phillip Island and found substantial performance gains from a midfield practice result to finish in the middle of the second row in his best ever qualifiying result. Sandro Cortese will line up sixth ahead of Takaaki Nakagami, Sam Lowes, Alex Marquez and Xavier Simeon.

Moto2 Malaysian Grand Prix Qualifying Results Top10:

POLE - THOMAS LUTHI, 2m06.383s

2nd - Johann ZARCO, +0.127s

3rd - Alex RINS, +0.454s

4th - Jonas FOLGER, +0.687s

5th - Lorenzo BALDASSARRI, +0.816s

6th - Sandro CORTESE, +0.841s

7th - Takaaki NAKAGAMI, +1.039s

8th - Sam LOWES, +1.116s

9th - Alex MARQUEZ, +1.132s

10th - Xavier SIMEON, +1.139s.

Full Moto2 Qualifying Results available here.