Sensational Marquez obliterates record for pole

Marquez smashes record

Repsol Honda's Marc Marquez set the fastest ever lap by a motorcycle around the legendary Silverstone Circuit to take his 28th career MotoGP pole position. The reigning MotoGP World Champion went under his 2013 pole record (2'00.691) on his very first flying lap to lay down a marker to the rest of the field at the Octo British Grand Prix.

The Spaniard then went even quicker on his second run to set a 2'00.234 in near perfect conditions (Track temp. 33ËšC) as all of the riders made use of their softer option tires. Marquez had earlier topped FP4 by almost a second, and carried his pace into Qualifying to finish 0.288s ahead of Lorenzo.

Movistar Yamaha's Jorge Lorenzo had earlier topped FP2 & FP3 and had been touted as the favorite for pole when the session started. The Spaniard had shown blistering pace throughout the weekend, and he too went under the old pole record on his way to claiming second, his ninth front row start of the season.

Dani Pedrosa (+0.482s) set his fastest time on his first flying lap to complete an all-Spanish front row. Pedrosa was in second when everyone returned to the pits for fresh rubber, but could not improve on his time but it was still good enough for third.

Movistar Yamaha's Valentino Rossi (+0.713s) will start from the head of the second row in fourth. The Italian improved his time from practice by over a second, but still found himself 0.4s behind his teammate and main title rival Lorenzo.

Monster Yamaha Tech 3's Pol Espargaro (+0.797s) was the leading Satellite rider in fifth, which was his best qualifying performance since he was also fifth in Assen. His teammate Bradley Smith (+0.906s) had been third on the combined timesheets after FP2, but will start the race from the back of the second row as the leading British rider in sixth.

Smith's compatriot Scott Redding (EG 0,0 Marc VDS) pulled off his best qualifying performance since Austin to start from the head of the third row in seventh. Cal Crutchlow (LCR Honda) made it a good day for the home fans as they saw three British riders on the front three rows of the grid as he secured eighth.

Ducati Team's Andrea Iannone completes the third row ahead of the two men who made it through from Q1, Aleix Espargaro (Team Suzuki Ecstar) and Yonny Hernandez (Octo Pramac Racing). Hernandez left it late to split the two Factory Suzuki's at the top of the timesheets in Q1 and surprise Maverick Vinales who thought he had done enough to progress. The Spaniard was forced to watch as the Columbian pulled off a sensational last lap to deny him passage to Q2.

Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team) completes the fourth row, ahead of Vinales, with Stefan Bradl impressing on only his third outing on the Aprilia Racing Team Gresini RS-GP in 14th.

Forward Racing's Loris Baz will start from 15th as the leading Open class rider, with Australian Jack Miller (LCR Honda) the leading Open Honda rider in 16th. The two Aspar MotoGP Team Honda's of Eugene Laverty and Nicky Hayden will start from 19th and 21st respectively, with the rookie Laverty out-qualifying his more experienced teammate for the seventh time this season.

Marc Marquez
"It was a good qualifying session. When I did the first lap I noticed that if put together the perfect lap, maybe I could get very close to 1’59.00. But I noticed I was right on the limit a couple of times, and especially in the last sector I was missing a little something under braking. In the end what counts is that we took pole position! You can always improve, but it was a very good lap."

Jorge Lorenzo
"To be honest, I didn't expect to improve so much and that everyone would be so quick in qualifying, but it's normal for everyone to improve their times by one second out of nowhere. If you don't get the perfect lap or don't push to your limits, it's very difficult to stay on the first row. For this reason I'm very happy with second place, this is a very good position, I'm very happy. I'm very proud of my two laps. Let's see which small details we can improve for tomorrow to keep a consistent pace."

Results

Pos. Rider Num Nation Team Constructor Time
1 MARQUEZ Marc 93 SPA Repsol Honda Team Honda 2'00.234
2 LORENZO Jorge 99 SPA Movistar Yamaha MotoGP Yamaha 2'00.522
3 PEDROSA Dani 26 SPA Repsol Honda Team Honda 2'00.716
4 ROSSI Valentino 46 ITA Movistar Yamaha MotoGP Yamaha 2'00.947
5 ESPARGARO Pol 44 SPA Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Yamaha 2'01.031
6 SMITH Bradley 38 GBR Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Yamaha 2'01.140
7 REDDING Scott 45 GBR Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS Honda 2'01.329
8 CRUTCHLOW Cal 35 GBR LCR Honda Honda 2'01.376
9 IANNONE Andrea 29 ITA Ducati Team Ducati 2'01.874
10 ESPARGARO Aleix 41 SPA Team Suzuki Ecstar Suzuki 2'01.880
11 HERNANDEZ Yonny 68 COL Pramac Racing Ducati 2'01.894
12 DOVIZIOSO Andrea 4 ITA Ducati Team Ducati 2'01.979
13 VINALES Maverick 25 SPA Team Suzuki Ecstar Suzuki 2'02.016
14 BRADL Stefan 6 GER Aprilia Racing Team Gresini Aprilia 2'02.657
15 BAZ Loris 76 FRA Athina Forward Racing Forward Yamaha 2'02.677
16 MILLER Jack 43 AUS LCR Honda Honda 2'02.697
17 BARBERA Hector 8 SPA Avintia Racing Ducati 2'02.784
18 PETRUCCI Danilo 9 ITA Pramac Racing Ducati 2'02.800
19 LAVERTY Eugene 50 IRE Aspar MotoGP Team Honda 2'02.894
20 BAUTISTA Alvaro 19 SPA Aprilia Racing Team Gresini Aprilia 2'02.908
21 HAYDEN Nicky 69 USA Aspar MotoGP Team Honda 2'02.946
22 DI MEGLIO Mike 63 FRA Avintia Racing Ducati 2'03.641
23 CORTI Claudio 71 ITA Athina Forward Racing Forward Yamaha 2'03.789
24 ABRAHAM Karel 17 CZE AB Motoracing Honda 2'04.133
25 DE ANGELIS Alex 15 RSM Athina Forward Racing Forward Yamaha 2'04.304