Tito Rabat flies at Moto2 Jerez and takes his first pole

The Moto2 World Championship has contested its battle for pole position at this third round of the season at the Jerez Circuit, where Tito Rabat has set the best time with a lap of 1:43.251, leaving Scott Redding almost half a second behind and with Takaaki Nakagami completing the front row of the grid.

For much of the session Redding dominated the lap times. The Briton looked strong, but our Tito Rabat stayed close to him throughout the official practice run and could not beat the time until the final 5 minutes, when he made a spectacular lap to take first place.

But Rabat did not stand still; instead he steadily improved his lap time, being the only rider to run under 1:43, so our number 80 is very strong on the Andalusian track and has secured his first pole position, undoubtedly a new milestone for Tito, who now stands as one of the favourites for this third race of the year. The lap set by Rabat was 1:43.251.

The rest of the top 10 was Nakagami in 3rd, Espargaró 4th, Torres 5th, Simeon 6th, Terol 7th, Schrotter 8th, Luthi 9th and 10th West. Meanwhile our riders were placed 12th Elías, Simón 14th, Pons 23rd, Smith 25th, Rivas 26th, Mariñelarena 27th, Cardús 28th and Moncayo 33rd.

It was a practice session with several crashes, such as those of Pons and Simón, among others, luckily it seems everyone is fine. It is also worth mentioning a huge scare Pol Espargaró had while he was setting pole position: his rear wheel slid off the track, he hit the sand and was launched in an unbelievable way. Fortunately he saved the crash, but it was very intense and at 180 km/h.

Lots of excitement and on to the races.

Photo | MotoGP Official website