Repsol Honda’s Marc Marquez Recorded His Fifth Pole
Marc Marquez extended his unbeaten qualifying streak by
taking a dominant pole position for the French Grand Prix at Le Mans 2014. The world
champion was almost seven tenths clear of the field with Pol Espargaro
springing a major surprise to qualify second at Tech 3’s home grand prix.
Although Jorge Lorenzo finished the three practice sessions
on top, the identity of the polesitter was never in any real doubt with Marquez
setting a 1:32.567 on his first lap of Q2. Little did he know it, but Marc had
already done enough to take pole with no-one matching his initial flyer but the
championship leader caused even more pain for his rivals by going half a second
quicker on his second set of tyres.
The rest of the front row looked set to be dominated by
Ducati with Andrea Iannone holding second, only to be beaten by Andrea
Dovizioso, but a flurry of late improvements saw the younger Espargaro brother
snatch second, comfortably his best qualifying result in MotoGP so far. Stefan
Bradl was among those to go quicker in the dying seconds to finish fourth with
the two Movistar Yamahas of Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo demoted to fifth
and sixth.
Alvaro Bautista starts seventh tomorrow ahead of Aleix
Espargaro while Dani Pedrosa will line up a disappointing ninth after lapping a
full second slower than his pacesetting teammate in Q2. Bradley Smith rose as
high as fourth at one stage but the frantic finish relegated him to tenth with
Andrea Iannone eleventh after an unintended shortcut on his last lap caused it
to be deleted.
Cal Crutchlow was the last rider to make it into the second
session after narrowly pipping Nicky Hayden in Q1 and the Briton will start
twelfth as a result, four places ahead of Scott Redding.
1. Marc Marquez Honda 1m32.042s
2. Pol Espargaro Tech
3 Yamaha 1m32.734s +0.692s
3. Andrea Dovizioso
Ducati 1m32.755s +0.713s
4. Stefan Bradl LCR
Honda 1m32.846s +0.804s
5. Valentino Rossi
Yamaha 1m32.873s +0.831s
6. Jorge Lorenzo
Yamaha 1m32.899s +0.857s
7. Alvaro Bautista
Gresini Honda 1m33.006s +0.964s
8. Aleix Espargaro
Forward Yamaha 1m33.015s +0.973s
9. Dani Pedrosa Honda
1m33.023s +0.981s
10. Bradley Smith Tech 3 Yamaha 1m33.058s +1.016s
11. Andrea Iannone Pramac Ducati 1m33.102s +1.060s
12. Cal Crutchlow Ducati 1m33.315s +1.273s
13. Nicky Hayden Aspar Honda 1m33.859s Q1
14. Yonny Hernandez Pramac Ducati 1m33.999s Q1
15. Colin Edwards Forward Yamaha 1m34.203s Q1
16. Scott Redding Gresini Honda 1m34.233s Q1
17. Hiroshi Aoyama Aspar Honda 1m34.457s Q1
18. Karel Abraham Cardion Honda 1m34.880s Q1
19. Hector Barbera Avintia FTR-Kawasaki 1m35.499s Q1
20. Broc Parkes PBM Aprilia 1m35.795s Q1
21. Michael Laverty PBM Aprilia 1m35.932s Q1
22. Mike di Meglio Avintia FTR-Kawasaki 1m36.163s Q1
