Rabat tops Zarco

Championship leader Rabat recorded a 1’43.961s towards the end of the session to make it a hat-trick of poles so far in 2014. The Spaniard was not distracted by a brief pause 23 minutes from the end of the QP when the red flags came out after a crash for Sam Lowes (Speed Up) which left debris on the track. Action soon resumed after cleaning had taken place. Zarco and Simeon respectively qualified 0.010s and 0.077s from Rabat and will both look to stay with the pole man at the start of Sunday’s race. Maverick Viñales (Pons HP 40) heads row two from Jonas Folger (AGR Team) and teammate Luis Salom (Pons HP 40), all three riders within 0.361s of pole. The third row sees Mattia Pasini (NGM Forward Racing), Alex De Angelis (Tasca Racing) and Simone Corsi (NGM Forward Racing) all under half a second from the front. Takaaki Nakagami (Idemitsu Honda Team Asia) heads the fourth row in tenth spot. Local wild card Sebastian Porto recovered from a large ‘moment’ at the start of the session to qualify in 32nd on his return to Grand Prix.