Sandro Cortese (Intact Racing Team Germany) set his first pole of the 2011 season for the Gran Premio bwin de España. Nicolas Terol (Bankia Aspar) was just behind and ahead of his team-mate Héctor Faubel (Bankia Aspar) in third.

The German took his third pole position of his career with a lap time of 1’47.399. He was unable to improve on the time he had set earlier in final practice, but had a margin of 0.209s over the championship leader Terol. Cortese after finishing second in the opening round of the series will be aiming to improve on his best finish of sixth at the Jerez circuit when he lines up as the pole sitter for the race tomorrow.


Héctor Faubel (Bankia Aspar) starts from the front row, just one place behind his team-mate. The Spaniard crashed out at this race last year and was unfortunate at Losail after mechanical gremlins cost him a finish in the top ten. The top three positions were separated by 0.570s with a large margin over the next group.

Heading the second row, another Spaniard, Efrén Vázquez (Ajo Motorsport) who will be making his 50th start in the 125cc class tomorrow from fourth on the grid Johann Zarco (Ajo Motorsport) who was sixth in Qatar, set the fifth fastest time of qualifying, one place ahead of Luis Salom (RW Racing GP) and Jonas Folger (Red Bull Ajo Motorsport).

16 year old Miguel Oliveira (Team Andalucía Banca Cívica) was eighth quickest and will start on the third row in the second race of the season, the first one in Europe. The Portuguese rider won the Spanish 125 Championship race here last season.