MotoGP: Marquez demolishes lap record, takes pole at Silverstone
Marc Marquez smashed his own record to claim his sixth pole of the season ahead of Jorge Lorenzo and Dani Pedrosa, with Rossi in fourth.
Repsol Honda’s 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 temperature of 91 degrees) 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 and 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 on his second run.
Movistar Yamaha’s Valentino Rossi (+0.713s) will have his work cut out come Sunday’s race after he could only manage to qualify 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, as he equaled his best qualifying performance of the season (Assen). His teammate Bradley Smith (+0.906s) had been third on the combined timesheets after FP3, but will start the race from the back of the second row as the leading British rider in sixth.
Smith’s compatriot Scott Redding pulled off his best qualifying performance since Austin to start from the head of the third row in seventh. Cal Crutchlow 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 completed 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 Viñales, who thought he had done enough to progress. The Spaniard was forced to watch as the Colombian pulled off a sensational last lap to deny him passage to Q2.
Andrea Dovizioso completed the fourth row, ahead of Viñales, with Stefan Bradl impressing on only his third outing on the Aprilia Racing Team Gresini RS-GP in 13th.
Forward Racing’s Loris Baz will start from 15th as the leading Open class rider, with Australian Jack Miller the leading Open Honda rider in 16th. The two Aspar MotoGP Team Honda’s of Eugene Laverty and Nicky Hayden will start form 19th and 21st respectively, with the rookie Laverty out qualifying his more experienced teammate for the seventh time this season.
