Espargaro out to stop Marques winning Moto2 title in Sepang

THE crowning of the Moto2 champion at the Sepang Circuit today may be derailed if Tuenti Movil HP 40 team’s Pol Espargaro continuestoshineinMalaysianMotorcycle Grand Prix.

The Spaniard took pole position after a frantic qualifying session where he kept Scott Redding and overall leader Marc Marquez at bay.

Team Catalunya Caixa Repsol’s Marquez leads the overall standings with 283 points while Espargaro is second on 230. A win for Marquez will see him being crown champion with two races to go.

But Espargaro is determined to delay the crowning by winning at Sepang and keep his slim world title hopes alive.

Espargaro said that his objective for the qualifying session was to stay with the leaders.

“It was a tough qualifying session but fun. At first I struggled a bit but the aim was not to lose touch with the front.

“I know that Marc (Marquez) has almost wrapped up the title but it is not mathematically over so I’m going to fight until the end.”

“We have solved our set-up problems and the machine performed admirably. Tomorrow (today) will be a hard race but I will try to have fun and fight for a win,” said Espargaro.

VDS Racing Team’s Scott Redding could not quite match the pace of the Spaniard, yet still managed his fifth front row start of the year in second place with Marquez next to him in third place.

Marquez has won eight races this year and just need one more win to wrap up the world title.

“We have a huge lead but for me it does not matter whether I wrap up the title here at Sepang, Australia or Valencia. The main things is to win the overall title no matter what. Winning it here would be good as we will not be under pressure in the last two races,” said Marquez.

Italtrans Racing Team’s Takaaki Nakagami followed up his good form in the morning to end the day in fourth place and will line up next to fifth placed JiR Moto2’s Johann Zarco.

Tech 3 Racing Team’s Bradley Smith did well to put his bike sixth on the grid for the race despite racing with a injured foot. Yesterday’s qualifying session was also a crash-strewn affair with Toni Elias of Italtrans Racing Team the first to fall off his bike. This was followed by Tuenti Mobile’s Axel Pons, Mapfre Aspar Team’s Nico Terol, Kiefer Racing’s Mike Di Meglio and Blusens Avintia’s Julian Simon. Fortunately none of the riders were seriously hurt.

With Marquez aiming to be crowned champion in Sepang and Espargaro out to deny him, a dogfight is on the cards in today’s Moto2 race.