Moto2: Late de Angelis pole at damp Phillip Island

Alex de Angelis repeated his Phillip Island Moto2 pole of one year ago after an exciting climax to a rain-interrupted qualifying at Phillip Island on Saturday.

Spots of rain after only a few minutes sent riders back to the pits, leaving Marc VDS rider Scott Redding fastest by 0.122sec from JiR's de Angelis.

The moisture continued off and on for the rest of the session, before a dryer window suddenly opened up in the closing minutes.

A frantic finale ended with de Angelis on pole by just 0.088sec from Tech 3's Mike di Meglio, with Gresini's Yuki Takahashi completing the front row.

Redding dropped to fourth, and will be joined on the second row by Technomag CIP's Kenan Sofuoglu and Speed Up's Pol Espargaro.

Tech 3's Bradley Smith will line-up seventh, while the changes in the closing stages changes were so great that title contender Stefan Bradl was pushed from pole to eighth.

The good news, from Bradl's point of view, is that new title leader Marc Marquez will start from last place.

Marquez is to be penalised for a Friday practice collision with Ratthapark Wilairot, which occurred after the chequered flag. As a result Marquez unsurprisingly didn't push for pole.

The Spaniard, who has beaten long-time title leader Bradl in the last eight races, holds a one-point advantage over the German with three rounds remaining.

Qualifying:

1. de Angelis (MotoBI) 1m 34.574s
2. di Meglio (Tech 3) +0.088s
3. Takahashi (Moriwaki) +0.115s
4. Redding (Suter) +0.125s
5. Sofuoglu (Suter) +0.155s
6. P. Espargaro (FTR) +0.223s
7. Smith (Tech 3) +0.293s
8. Bradl (Kalex) +0.328s
9. Luthi (Suter) +0.384s
10. Pasini (FTR) +0.518s