Marquez storms to pole position in hectic Austin MotoGP qualifying
Honda rider Marc Marquez set a new lap record at the Circuit of the Americas to secure pole position, despite having to change to a second bike.
Polesitter Marc Marquez, Repsol Honda Team
Repsol Media
Marc Marquez refused to be beaten today with the reigning MotoGP World Champion not even letting a malfunction in his preferred Honda RC213V stop him from storming to the top of the time sheets.
The dramatic 15 minute session got underway with Marquez going to the top but a mechanical gremlin on his No. 1 machine while starting a flying lap forced the Spaniard to sprint back to pitlane to pick up his second bike and make it under the flag with seconds to spare and allowing him to set a record lap of 2m 02.135s.
Just after Marquez had broken down, LCR Honda rider Cal Crutchlow had also broken the pole record. However, a last minute charge from Ducati rider Andrea Dovizioso to take second along with Yamaha teammates Jorge Lorenzo and Valentino Rossi saw Crutchlow demoted to the middle of the second row.
The last place on the second row will be occupied by Scot Redding who had another strong session on the Marc VDS Honda machine while Andrea Iannone worked hard to qualify his factory Ducati in 7th after making it through from Q1.
Suzuki's Aleix Espargaro will start from 8th tomorrow with the Spaniard leading his brother Pol Espargaro in 9th and his Tech 3 teamamte Bradley Smith experiencing some techincal problems and ending up with a 10th place start.
Pos | Rider | Bike | Time | Gap |
1 | Marc Marquez | Honda | 2'02.135 | - |
2 | Andrea Dovizioso | Ducati | 2'02.474 | 0.339 |
3 | Jorge Lorenzo | Yamaha | 2'02.540 | 0.405 |
4 | Valentino Rossi | Yamaha | 2'02.573 | 0.438 |
5 | Cal Crutchlow | Honda | 2'02.613 | 0.478 |
6 | Scott Redding | Honda | 2'02.674 | 0.539 |
7 | Andrea Iannone | Ducati | 2'02.792 | 0.657 |
8 | Aleix Espargaro | Suzuki | 2'02.869 | 0.734 |
9 | Pol Espargaro | Yamaha | 2'03.161 | 1.026 |
10 | Bradley Smith | Yamaha | 2'03.440 | 1.305 |
11 | Danilo Petrucci | Ducati | 2'03.741 | 1.606 |
12 | Maverick Vinales | Suzuki | 2'03.754 | 1.619 |
13 | Héctor Barberá | Ducati | 2'03.926 | 1.791 |
14 | Stefan Bradl | Yamaha Forward/Yamaha | 2'04.275 | 2.140 |
15 | Yonny Hernandez | Ducati | 2'04.313 | 2.178 |
16 | Mike Di Meglio | Ducati | 2'04.392 | 2.257 |
17 | Eugene Laverty | Honda | 2'04.875 | 2.740 |
18 | Hiroshi Aoyama | Honda | 2'05.086 | 2.951 |
19 | Jack Miller | Honda | 2'05.156 | 3.021 |
20 | Loris Baz | Yamaha Forward/Yamaha | 2'05.214 | 3.079 |
21 | Karel Abraham | Honda | 2'05.261 | 3.126 |
22 | Nicky Hayden | Honda | 2'05.569 | 3.434 |
23 | Alvaro Bautista | Aprilia | 2'05.595 | 3.460 |
24 | Alex de Angelis | ART/Aprilia | 2'06.145 | 4.010 |
25 | Marco Melandri | Aprilia | 2'07.267 | 5.132 |
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