Marcel Schrotter nailed his maiden Moto2 pole position in the first two-session qualifying session in Moto2 under the floodlights in Qatar.

After following Australian Remy Gardener, the German hooked up his Dynavolt Intact GP to sit in a provisional pole position, only to see his former team-mate Xavi Vierge snatch the provisional pole from the German.

One lap later, Schrotter went faster and posted an unbeatable lap time of a 1:58.585, which was enough to secure his first ever Moto2 pole position.

“We have been very close so many times now. To finally achieve the pole position is such a great feeling. I am proud of the work we have done so far. Up to now it was always that we had to give up on the pole position in the last minutes,” said Schrotter.

“This weekend everything went so well from the beginning. I don’t know what to expect from tomorrow.

“I just want to concentrate on myself and on my performance and then we will see what will happen.”

Vierge held onto second place, just 0.146 seconds off of Schrotter’s time. Lorenzo Baldassarri will join them on the front row, with the Italian posting his best lap of the session in the closing seconds after getting his tow from his Pons team-mate.

Luca Marini successfully guided his way through Q1 and despite a late crash at turn two the Italian successful qualified at the head of the second row. The impressive Remy Gardener will join the Sky VR46 rider in fifth position with Sam Lowes in sixth.

Tom Luthi shook off his nasty Friday crash to qualify in seventh with the experienced of Brad Binder and Alex Marquez joining the Swiss rider on the third row. Augusto Fernandez rounded out the top ten with Jorge Martin – who walked away from a fast crash himself a turn two – and Jorge Navarro in eleventh and twelfth respectively.