Catalunya MotoGP: Bradley Smith on 125GP second row

World 125GP championship leader Bradley Smith will start tomorrow’s Catalunya race in Spain from seventh on the grid.

In a qualifying session running in baking hot conditions at the Montmelo circuit near Barcelona, Smith’s best lap of 1.52.209 secured him a spot on the second row of the grid for tomorrow’s 22-lap clash.

The Oxfordshire rider though was a massive 0.761s adrift of Aspar Aprilia team-mate Julian Simon, who claimed his first pole position since the third round in Jerez back in early May.

Just three places further back on the grid is 16-year-old Gloucestershire rider Scott Redding, who claimed 10th with a best lap of 1.52.536 on his 11th of 17 laps.

That was just over a second away from pole position but just 0.7s from a third successive front row start. Kent rider Danny Webb produced a heroic performance on his Degraaf Aprilia machine to claim 11th on the grid.

The 18-year-old suffered bad cuts and bruising on his right hand in a crash during practice yesterday, but he braved the discomfort to clock a best time of 1.52.548. That was just 0.012s away from compatriot Redding.

Simon’s third pole position of the season saw him just edge out fellow Spaniard Pol Espargaro by 0.020s, with highly-rated German rookie Jonas Folger taking advantage of a last lap slipstream to claim third.

Slipstreaming on the drag to the finish line was also a tactic that served Webb’s team-mate Randy Krummenacher well as he claimed fourth with a best lap of 1.51.804.