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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

Polesitter Marc Marquez, Repsol Honda Team

Repsol Media

Jorge Lorenzo, Yamaha Factory Racing
Valentino Rossi, Yamaha Factory Racing
Cal Crutchlow, Team LCR Honda
Aleix Espargaro, Team Suzuki MotoGP
Andrea Iannone, Ducati Team
Andrea Dovizioso, Ducati Team

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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