Moto2 Le Mans: Navarro takes back-to-back poles despite fall
Jorge Navarro dominated Q2 after scraping through Q1, using his track time in the drizzling rain wisely to pull out a string of fast laps, having done enough to secure pole position before falling in the final minutes of qualifying for the French Moto2 Grand Prix.
The Lightech Speed Up rider turned his poor start to the weekend around and after struggling in the wet FP3 the Spaniard gave everything, with some small improvements to the bike key to moving out of Q1.
Navarro then never looked back and repeatedly lowered the pole time to a best of 1m 49.055s before he followed Mattia Pasini into the gravel at turn eight.
Tom Luthi had a similar story to his qualifying - he too had to go through Q1, though he came out of that session on top - and briefly hit first on the Q2 timesheets only to run straight off into the gravel and have to wait to see if his time would hold.
Navarro took pole back immediatley but It would not bettered by anyone else in the difficult, cold, changeable conditions, leaving the Dynavolt Intact GP Kalex rider safe in second - 0.078s behind the pole time.
Third on the grid went to Alex Marquez (EG 0,0 MArc VDS) who chipped away at his personal best over and over while chasing the absent top two.
Pasini, who returns again as a replacement rider (this time filling in for the injured Khairul Idham Pawi, who had had surgery on the finger he fractured during the Spanish GP weekend) held on to fourth despite his crash, for Petronas Sprinta Racing.
Xavi Veirge picked off several places in the final minutes to climb to fifth on the second Marc VDS entry, though he was over one second away from Navarro’s best.
Andrea Locatelli too made late progress to claim sixth on the grid for Italtrans.
Championship leader Lorenzo Baldassarri will be looking to fight forward from seventh for Flexbox HP 40 after a quiet session.
Brad Binder, who had lead the way on Friday, was the best of the KTM riders in eighth after finding some extra pace at the end of the session for Red Bull KTM Ajo.
Lukas Tulovic made the most of his Q1 time on track to smash his best ever qualifying performance, he starts ninth for Kiefer racing, demolishing his previous best of 24th - the German also finished the day as top rookie performer.
Marcel Schrotter, already carrying injury and using crutches to get around the paddock after a training accident, was yet another rider to push too hard and end up in the gravel, but being the first to fall in the second half of qualifying gave him enough time to get his bike back on track, storming into the top ten on his return for Dynavolt Intact GP.
That shuffled Jake Dixon back to eleventh on his return after his Texas crash left him with concussion, he impressed by making it out of Q1 for the Sama Qatar Angel Nieto Team, and placed highly atthe beginning of Q2 but then spent the closing stages of the session in the pits instead of on track.
Remy Gardner gave all he had following his fall which brought out the red flag last time out in Jerez, the SAG rider did enough to start twelfth.
Nicolo Bulega had an issue early on which saw him return to the pits almost immediately, the lack of track time meant he could only manage 15th but he was still the best of the Sky Racing VR46 riders with Luca Marini just missing out on moving into Q2, leaving him 19th.
Sam Lowes again missed out due to error, his crash left him unable to progress despite returning to track, he starts from 26th.
There were also falls for Fabio Di Giannantonio (20th) and Somikat Chantra (23rd) in Q1 - all riders were declared fit to continue to race day.
