Motorsport | MotoGP
 |
|
|
|
Marc Marquez will begin Sunday's title showdown with an advantage on the track and in the standings after taking pole position for the Valencia MotoGP.
The Honda rookie heads into Sunday's season finale as the favourite to claim the MotoGP World title as he holds a 13-point lead over reigning World Champion Jorge Lorenzo.
Marquez also had the advantage out on track as he pipped his Yamaha rival to pole position in Saturday's qualifying by 0.340s.
As Q1 got underway, Hector Barbera and Claudio Corti had the better of the early running while Ducati's Michele Pirro's chances of progressing were undo when he crashed at Turn 12 while down in seventh place.
But with a minute to go, Andrea Iannone and Danilo Petrucci hit the front while Aleix Espargaro missed out as the season's top CRT rider could only manage the fourth best time with Barbera third.
With the field completed for Q2, Iannone and Petrucci joined the top riders in the 15-minute battle to determine the top four rows of the Valencia grid.
Lorenzo was the first out and immediately put in a 1:30.645, the fastest lap of the weekend at the time. The reigning World Champ was up on his next lap only to pull into the pits instead of completing it.
Leaving the track to Marquez, the Honda rookie's first lap was 2.7s down, his second was just 0.145s off the pace while he failed to improve on his third and therefore made his way back into the pits.
Cal Crutchlow was third quickest after the riders' first runs while Dani Pedrosa was fourth ahead of Valentino Rossi and Alvaro Bautista.
As his rivals pulled back into the pits, Lorenzo ventured out with a completely free track at his disposal. However, he was in after just one lap, swapping to his spare bike as his original reportedly had rear brake issues.
Also heading out for his second run of the afternoon, Marquez put in a stunning lap to hit the front with a record-breaking 1:30.237, 0.408s quicker than Lorenzo's previous best. With such an epic under his belt, the 20-year-old sat up as he called it quits on his qualifying with a minute still remaining.
In that minute no one could beat Marquez's time with Lorenzo only managing to close the gap to 0.340s. As such, the Yamaha rider will start Sunday's title showdown just behind his rival on the grid. Pedrosa completed the front row, 0.426s down.
Rossi, Crutchlow and Bradley Smith will make up the second row ahead of Bautista, Stefan Bradl and Andrea Dovizioso.
TIMES
01 Marc MARQUEZ Repsol Honda Team 1'30.237
02 Jorge LORENZO Yamaha Factory Racing 1'30.577
03 Dani PEDROSA Repsol Honda Team 1'30.663
04 Valentino ROSSI Yamaha Factory Racing 1'30.920
05 Cal CRUTCHLOW Monster Yamaha Tech 3 1'31.113
06 Bradley SMITH Monster Yamaha Tech 3 1'31.201
07 Alvaro BAUTISTA GO&FUN Honda Gresini 1'31.594
08 Stefan BRADL LCR Honda MotoGP 1'31.638
09 Andrea DOVIZIOSO Ducati Team 1'31.718
10 Nicky HAYDEN Ducati Team 1'31.870
11 Andrea IANNONE Energy T.I. Pramac Racing 1'31.963
12 Danilo PETRUCCI Came IodaRacing Project 1'33.116
13 Hector BARBERA Avintia Blusens 1'32.773
14 Aleix ESPARGARO Power Electronics Aspar 1'32.807
15 Claudio CORTI NGM Mobile Forward Racing 1'32.961
16 Yonny HERNANDEZ Ignite Pramac Racing 1'32.966
17 Michele PIRRO Ducati Test Team 1'32.966
18 Colin EDWARDS NGM Mobile Forward Racing 1'33.203
19 Hiroshi AOYAMA Avintia Blusens 1'33.328
20 Randy DE PUNIET Power Electronics Aspar 1'33.869
21 Michael LAVERTY Paul Bird Motorsport 1'34.018
22 Luca SCASSA Cardion AB Motoracing 1'34.113
23 Bryan STARING GO&FUN Honda Gresini 1'34.805
24 Damian CUDLIN Paul Bird Motorsport 1'34.903
25 Lukas PESEK Came IodaRacing Project 1'34.993
26 Martin BAUER Remus Racing Team 1'35.277
No comments:
Post a Comment