Kent claims maiden pole at Motegi

Danny Kent claimed his first ever Moto3 pole position with a superb last-gasp effort in qualifying at Motegi.

The Briton beat championship leaders Maverick Vinales and Sandro Cortese to top spot, as qualifying boiled down to a thrilling three-way shootout in the final two minutes.

Kent was the first to make his move, going fastest with a 1m58.804s.

Cortese soon demoted him however, setting a new weekend best of 1m8.669s just moments before the chequered flag fell.

Kent and Vinales were both out on track however and were both under Cortese’s new benchmark.

Vinales crossed the line first, going top for all of two seconds before Kent, benefiting from Vinales’s slipstream, sealed pole with a 1m58.371s, two tenths clear of the pack.

His Ajo KTM team-mate Zulfahmi Khairuddin will start directly behind him in fourth, meaning Vinales was the only Honda rider to crack the top four.

Alessandro Tonucci (Italia FMI FTR-Honda) almost joined him, running fourth until Khairuddin demoted him in the final minute.

Luis Salom (RW Kalex-KTM) likewise improved late on to relegate Jonas Folger (Aspar Kalex KTM) into seventh.

Folger suffered two bike failures during the session, the latter of which came five minutes from the end, forcing him to miss the final moments of the session.

Pos  Rider                Team/Bike                Time       Gap
  1.  Danny Kent           Ajo KTM                  1m58.371s
  2.  Maverick Vinales     Avintia FTR-Honda        1m58.574s  + 0.203s
  3.  Sandro Cortese       Ajo KTM                  1m58.669s  + 0.298s
  4.  Zulfahmi Khairuddin  Ajo KTM                  1m58.951s  + 0.580s
  5.  Alessandro Tonucci   Italia FMI FTR-Honda     1m59.072s  + 0.701s
  6.  Luis Salom           RW Kalex-KTM             1m59.097s  + 0.726s
  7.  Jonas Folger         Aspar Kalex KTM          1m59.125s  + 0.754s
  8.  Louis Rossi          Germany FTR-Honda        1m59.213s  + 0.842s
  9.  Efren Vazquez        Laglisse Honda           1m59.287s  + 0.916s
 10.  Romano Fenati        Italia FMI FTR-Honda     1m59.359s  + 0.988s
 11.  Miguel Oliveira      Monlau Honda             1m59.494s  + 1.123s
 12.  Niccolo Antonelli    Gresini Honda            1m59.652s  + 1.281s
 13.  Alex Rins            Monlau Honda             1m59.653s  + 1.282s
 14.  Arthur Sissis        Ajo KTM                  1m59.686s  + 1.315s
 15.  Alberto Moncayo      Aspar Kalex-KTM          1m59.904s  + 1.533s
 16.  Adrian Martin        Laglisse Honda           1m59.945s  + 1.574s
 17.  Alex Marquez         Estrella Suter Honda     1m59.949s  + 1.578s
 18.  Brad Binder          RW Kalex-KTM             1m59.974s  + 1.603s
 19.  Jakub Kornfeil       Ongetta FTR-Honda        1m59.998s  + 1.627s
 20.  Alan Techer          Technomag-CIP TSR-Honda  2m00.021s  + 1.650s
 21.  Hyuga Watanabe       Project u Honda          2m00.044s  + 1.673s
 22.  Jack Miller          Caretta Honda            2m00.177s  + 1.806s
 23.  Niklas Ajo           TT Motion KTM            2m00.386s  + 2.015s
 24.  Toni Finsterbusch    MZ-Honda                 2m00.460s  + 2.089s
 25.  Isaac Vinales        Ongetta FTR-Honda        2m00.526s  + 2.155s
 26.  John McPhee          Caretta Honda            2m00.755s  + 2.384s
 27.  Yuudai Kamei         18 Garage Honda          2m00.940s  + 2.569s
 28.  Giulian Pedone       Ambrogio Oral            2m00.987s  + 2.616s
 29.  Kenta Fujii          Technomag-CIP TSR-Honda  2m01.233s  + 2.862s
 30.  Josep Rodriguez      Ongetta FTR-Honda        2m01.256s  + 2.885s
 31.  Luca Amato           Aspar Kalex KTM          2m01.500s  + 3.129s
 32.  Danny Webb           Mahindra                 2m02.362s  + 3.991s
 33.  Armando Pontone      Ioda                     2m03.819s  + 5.448s
 34.  Riccardo Moretti     Mahindra                 2m05.450s  + 7.079s
 

Source: http://www.iracing.com/inracingnews/real-world-racing/3rdparty/kent-claims-maiden-pole-at-motegi

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