Argentina Moto2: Lowes denies Zarco pole in tight battle

Gresini Kalex rider Lowes saved his best effort for his 20th and final tour of the Termas de Rio Hondo track, setting a 1m43.347s to beat Zarco's long-standing benchmark by 0.242s.

The Frenchman improved on his last flying lap, but ended up 0.119s shy of Lowes in the final reckoning and was forced to settle for second on the Ajo Kalex.

Jonas Folger (Intact) also looked like improving at the chequered flag as well but lost ground towards the end of the lap, the German taking third with a lap 0.290s off the pace.

Takaaki Nakagami (Team Asia) will lead the second row ahead of Marc VDS rider Franco Morbidelli and Qatar winner Thomas Luthi (Paddock).

Folger's Intact teammate Sandro Cortese was seventh, from Danny Kent - a late improver on the Leopard Kalex - and Lorenzo Baldassarri (Forward), back in action just two weeks after dislocating both shoulders in a crash during qualifying in Qatar.

Axel Pons (AGR) completed the top 10, one place ahead of Alex Rins aboard the Pons bike. Simone Corsi was the best non-Kalex in P13.

Qualifying results:

Pos	Rider	Team	Bike	Time
1	Sam Lowes	Gresini Racing	Kalex	1:43.347
2	Johann Zarco	Ajo Motorsport	Kalex	1:43.466
3	Jonas Folger	Dynavolt Intact GP	Kalex	1:43.637
4	Takaaki Nakagami	Idemitsu Honda Team Asia	Kalex	1:43.709
5	Franco Morbidelli	Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS	Kalex	1:43.733
6	Thomas Luthi	Garage Plus Interwetten	Kalex	1:43.813
7	Sandro Cortese	Dynavolt Intact GP	Kalex	1:43.823
8	Danny Kent	Leopard Racing	Kalex	1:43.858
9	Lorenzo Baldassarri	Forward Racing	Kalex	1:43.981
10	Axel Pons	AGR Team	Kalex	1:43.982
11	Alex Rins	Paginas Amarillas HP 40	Kalex	1:43.989
12	Hafizh Syahrin	Petronas Raceline Malaysia Team Honda	Kalex	1:44.055
13	Simone Corsi	Speed Up Racing	Speed Up	1:44.060
14	Luis Salom	SAG Team	Kalex	1:44.104
15	Alex Marquez	Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS	Kalex	1:44.154
16	Marcel Schrötter	AGR Team	Kalex	1:44.172
17	Xavier Simeon	QMMF Racing Team	Speed Up	1:44.396
18	Miguel Oliveira	Leopard Racing	Kalex	1:44.424
19	Dominique Aegerter	Technomag Racing Interwetten	Kalex	1:44.443
20	Mattia Pasini	Italtrans Racing Team	Kalex	1:44.523
21	Ratthapark Wilairot	Idemitsu Honda Team Asia	Kalex	1:44.572
22	Luca Marini	Forward Racing	Kalex	1:44.603
23	Xavi Vierge	Tech 3 Racing	Tech 3	1:44.703
24	Julian Simon	QMMF Racing Team	Speed Up	1:44.767
25	Jesko Raffin	Sports-Millions-EMWE-SAG	Kalex	1:45.294
26	Robin Mulhauser	Technomag Racing Interwetten	Kalex	1:45.848
27	Isaac Viñales	Tech 3 Racing	Tech 3	1:45.859
28	Efren Vazquez	JPMoto Malaysia	Suter	1:46.272
29	Alessandro Tonucci	Tasca Racing Scuderia Moto2	Kalex	1:46.554