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MotoGP Qatar: Lowes storms to debut Moto2 pole

Britain’s Sam Lowes blitzed the Moto2 field in Qatar to claim his first Moto2 pole position by more than a third of a second from Johann Zarco with reigning champion Tito Rabat completing the front row.

Lowes started his campaign with a 1’59.680 on his seventh lap to take the lead away from Marc VDS man Rabat, who had been top of the tree with a 1’59.874 with Zarco in third on a 1’59.898 while the rest of the pack wandered around in the low 2’00s.

With 22 minutes left, Lowes was on another fast lap and was two-tenths up in the third sector but got held up. After collecting himself, he went out and stuck in a 1’59.650 even though he was slower than his personal best for most of the lap.

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The Derby-based rider then stuck in the fastest ever Moto2 lap of Qatar after some fork preload changes, going around in 1’59.423. He then slipped off at turn four, in what he described as a rookie mistake, after allowing the tyre to cool too much but re-mounted and gave the marshals a thank you wave.

“The crash wasn’t going too fast, I was going too slow on my out lap, so it was a bit of a rookie mistake as the tyre was too cold. To be honest I won something last year and it was for most crashes so one, I can handle that,” said Lowes, speaking in parc ferme.

“The whole thing has gone really good, I have done a lot of 1’59s. Maybe I wanted too much from the rear tyre but I have done well all weekend, the pace is really good and I am excited, so thanks to everyone for their support.”

Zarco re-claimed in second with 1’59.755 with Rabat ending on a 1’59.813. Sandro Cortese popped into fourth late on after following Jonas Folger around. The AGR rider ended in fifth and is half a second off the pace, 0.294 ahead of Xavier Simeon, who completes the second row.

Click here for times

Fastest lap sequence

4’13.676 1 Tito RABAT SPA KALEX 2’01.394 159.5 2
4’31.799 94 Jonas FOLGER GER KALEX 2’01.059 159.9 2
5’22.595 5 Johann ZARCO FRA KALEX 2’00.183 161.1 2
7’22.493 5 Johann ZARCO FRA KALEX 1’59.898 161.5 3
18’15.666 1 Tito RABAT SPA KALEX 1’59.874 161.5 9
20’56.909 22 Sam LOWES GBR SPEED UP 1’59.680 161.8 7
27’03.179 22 Sam LOWES GBR SPEED UP 1’59.650 161.8 10
31’02.279 22 Sam LOWES GBR SPEED UP 1’59.423 162.1 12

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