Reigning 125cc champion Julian Simon secured his first Moto2 pole position in a thrilling climax to Indianapolis qualifying.
Going into the closing seconds the Marc VDS team looked set for a one-two on the grid, with Hector Faubel having just knocked his team-mate Scott Redding off the top spot.
But then fellow Suter rider Simon (Aspar) outshone them both, blasting in a 1m46.139s lap to beat Faubel by 0.148 seconds and practice pacesetter Redding by 0.195s, with the latter frustrated by traffic delays as he tried to fight back.Simone Corsi completed the front row on the JiR Motobi.
Former Kawasaki MotoGP rider Anthony West broke into the top ten for MZ for the first time by taking fifth. All the men in the top five achieved their best Moto2 qualifying results to date.
Championship leader Toni Elias (Gresini Moriwaki) had held provisional pole for much of the session, before Redding usurped him. Moments later, Elias lost balance on the bumps at Turn 6 and fell, and while he was able to jump straight back on and continue, his pole challenge was over and he tumbled to sixth ahead of Ratthapark Wilairot and Sergio Gadea.
But Elias still looks set to extend his points advantage tomorrow as his main rival Andrea Iannone is currently in the medical center after a heavy crash. The sidelined Speed Up rider was left 26th on the grid. Fonsi Nieto also required medical assistance following an accident, although his time stood for 12th. Arne Tode and Raffaele de Rosa also had crashes, but the latter still managed to take 10th on the grid.
Wild card rider Roger Lee Hayden, brother of Ducati MotoGP star Nicky, was 29th on his series debut.