Marquez shatters lap record clinching sixth pole

Marc Marquez

Repsol Honda's Marc Marquez has taken his sixth pole position of his MotoGP career with a blistering time of 1'32.915, over half a second faster than second place Lorenzo. With this time he convincingly broke the pole record set by Casey Stoner in 2011 (1'33.138) but it wasn't a totally straight forward session. Marc only had one bike to qualify on after a small crash in turn thirteen in this afternoon's FP4 session and his crew didn't have enough time to fix the damage before the 15 minute Q2.

Teammate Dani Pedrosa also had a difficult day with a small crash in this morning's FP3. However, there was enough time to fix the damaged bike in time for qualifying but Dani, who has had grip issues all weekend, was unable to progress higher that 4th for tomorrow's race with a time of 1'33.726.

Marc Marquez 1st 1'32.915
“I'm very happy with this pole position, as we had a really good hot lap! It's a shame about the small crash that we had in practice this morning – which was completely my fault – but the important thing is that we know where I made the mistake. In qualifying I felt very comfortable every time on fast laps and was able to put in some quick times. We'll see if we can fight with Jorge tomorrow, as he has a very good pace.

Valentino will also be tough to beat, because it is his home race and he has been very strong in practice; I'm sure that he will be fast tomorrow as will Dani. The aim is to get a good start, try to ride in the lead group at the front and pick up more World Championship points"

Qualifying Results

1 Marc Marquez 1'32.915 SPA HONDA Repsol Honda Team
2 Jorge Lorenzo 1'33.428 SPA YAMAHA Yamaha Factory Racing
3 Valentino Rossi 1'33.573 ITA YAMAHA Yamaha Factory Racing
4 Dani Pedrosa 1'33.726 SPA HONDA Repsol Honda Team
5 Cal Crutchlow 1'34.014 GBR YAMAHA Monster Yamaha Tech 3
6 Aleix Espargaro 1'34.028 SPA ART Power Electronics Aspar
7 Stefan Bradl 1'34.098 GER HONDA LCR Honda MotoGP
8 Alvaro Bautista 1'34.230 SPA HONDA Go & Fun Honda Gresini
9 Andrea Dovizioso 1'34.338 ITA DUCATI Ducati Team
10 Nicky Hayden 1'34.362 USA DUCATI Ducati Team
11 Michele Pirro 1'34.467 ITA DUCATI Ignite Pramac Racing Team
12 Andrea Iannone 1'34.519 ITA DUCATI Energy T.I. Pramac Racing Team
13 Bradley Smith 1'34.869 GBR YAMAHA Monster Yamaha Tech 3
14 Colin Edwards 1'35.174 USA FTR-KAWASAKI NGM Mobile Forward Racing
15 Hiroshi Aoyama 1'35.534 JAP FTR Avintia Blusens
16 Randy De Puniet 1'35.596 FRA SUZUKI Suzuki Test Team
17 Hector Barbera 1'35.866 SPA FTR Avintia Blusens
18 Claudio Corti 1'35.885 ITA FTR-KAWASAKI NGM Mobile Forward Racing
19 Danilo Petrucci 1'36.027 ITA IODA-SUTER Came IodaRacing Project
20 Michael Laverty 1'36.788 GBR PBM Paul Bird Motorsport
21 Yonny Hernandez 1'36.844 COL PBM Paul Bird Motorsport
22 Karel Abraham 1'36.877 CZE ART Cardion AB Motoracing
23 Bryan Staring 1'37.283 AUS FTR-HONDA Go & Fun Honda Gresini
24 Lukas Pesek 1'37.886 CZE IODA-SUTER Came IodaRacing Project