Moto2 Austria Qualifying: Sam Lowes back on pole position

August 14, 2021 EMR Writer

Sam Lowes takes his fourth pole position of the year in Austria.

Sam Lowes storms to pole position in Moto2 robbing it from the hands of Ai Ogura with 30 seconds left in the session. It’s been a long time without a pole position start for Sam Lowes, he hasn’t started from the front of the grid since the third round of the season and has struggled ever since with some crashes and non-desirable results. Despite these Sam has been able to come back and set the fastest time on a track he really isn’t fond of.

For two riders, it was a session of nightmares namely Marco Bezzecchi who crashed incredibly early on and was forced to watch from the sidelines as he tumbled down the order eventually arriving in P16, this will give him a lot of work to do tomorrow if he wants to do the double and win again here following last weekends victory. Remy Gardner also suffered what we believe to be his first crash in all sessions in 2021 as he pushed to try and take pole, pretty darn impressive to see him last 11 rounds before a crash.

Joining Sam Lowes on the front row were rookie duo Raul Fernandez and Ai Ogura, both riders putting in stunning races this year after their blisteringly quick adaptations to the middleweight Moto2 class, holding their own against the experienced veterans of the class, even winning races in the case of Fernandez with Ogura smelling a podium last weekend at the same circuit. There is no doubt both riders will be up against it tomorrow to battle their way for the race win tomorrow, not forgetting that Ogura has never won a race yet, being incredibly close in Moto3 on multiple occasions.

Heading row two is Augusto Fernandez who is in a spectacular run of form, the Spanish rider finally loving life at the Marc VDS team following an adaptation to the new size Dunlop front tyre, he has two podiums in the last two races and will be aiming to triple up tomorrow, he is joined by Remy Gardner and Aron Canet on the second row with Gardner showing some chinks in his armour these last two weeks, despite this, he’s absolutely a contender for victory.

Somkiat Chantra is another rider in a burst of form, these last two races he has looked very impressive holding is own being joined by Celestino Vietti and Lorenzo Dalla Porta on row three, the rookie Vietti and ex-Moto3 Champion Dalla Porta seriously impressing with Thomas Luthi in P10.

Q2 Results –