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Indianapolis MotoGP: Marc Marquez beats Andrea Dovizioso to pole

Marc Marquez claimed his eighth pole of the 2014 MotoGP season at Indianapolis, ahead of Andrea Dovizioso's Ducati

Runaway championship leader Marquez's Q2 began badly when he carried too much speed into Turn 1 on his opening lap, flew across the grass and ended up on the IndyCar oval.

But as ever, Marquez was completely unflustered and on his next lap banged in a 1m31.718s to beat provisional polesitter Jorge Lorenzo's Yamaha by nearly three tenths of a second.

Marquez subsequently improved by another tenth, and Dovizioso followed the Honda on that lap, leaping up to second in the process, 0.025 seconds ahead of Lorenzo.

Three Yamahas line up on row two: the Forward version of Aleix Espargaro taking fourth ahead of Lorenzo's factory team-mate Valentino Rossi and Tech 3's Pol Espargaro.

Marquez's Honda team-mate Dani Pedrosa's muted weekend continued as he qualified only eighth, behind Andrea Iannone.

Bradley Smith had a violent crash in the closing moments of qualifying, getting briefly caught under his Tech 3 Yamaha as it slid along the track after a high-side. He was able to walk away with assistance from the marshals.

Scott Redding earned his first Q2 appearance by beating fellow Briton Cal Crutchlow to the top spot in Q1.

Although Broc Parkes's crash at the last corner meant riders' final laps were stymied by yellow flags, no one had looked quick enough to depose Redding regardless.

The two Brits brought up the rear in Q2, just behind practice three pacesetter Stefan Bradl. Crutchlow had one lap disallowed for infringing track limits in the first sector and will start 12th.

Redding's jump to the front in Q1 knocked Yonny Hernandez's Pramac Ducati out of the pole shootout, and he also outpaced the factory-spec Honda of his Gresini team-mate Alvaro Bautista, who was only fourth in the session.

That Bautista was out in qualifying at all was slightly miraculous after his horrendous high-side in morning practice.

Another Brit to impress was Nicky Hayden's stand-in Leon Camier, who took 16th on the grid for his MotoGP and Indy debut, two places and two tenths ahead of Aspar team-mate Hiroshi Aoyama.

Pos  Rider             Team/Bike             Time       Gap    
 1.  Marc Marquez      Honda                 1m31.619s         
 2.  Andrea Dovizioso  Ducati                1m31.844s  +0.225s
 3.  Jorge Lorenzo     Yamaha                1m31.869s  +0.250s
 4.  Aleix Espargaro   Forward Yamaha        1m32.113s  +0.494s
 5.  Valentino Rossi   Yamaha                1m32.160s  +0.541s
 6.  Pol Espargaro     Tech 3 Yamaha         1m32.243s  +0.624s
 7.  Andrea Iannone    Pramac Ducati         1m32.254s  +0.635s
 8.  Dani Pedrosa      Honda                 1m32.331s  +0.712s
 9.  Bradley Smith     Tech 3 Yamaha         1m32.343s  +0.724s
10.  Stefan Bradl      LCR Honda             1m32.514s  +0.895s
11.  Scott Redding     Gresini Honda         1m32.714s  +1.095s
12.  Cal Crutchlow     Ducati                1m32.794s  +1.175s
13.  Yonny Hernandez   Pramac Ducati         1m33.166s  Q1     
14.  Alvaro Bautista   Gresini Honda         1m33.294s  Q1     
15.  Colin Edwards     Forward Yamaha        1m33.625s  Q1     
16.  Leon Camier       Aspar Honda           1m33.747s  Q1     
17.  Danilo Petrucci   Ioda Aprilia          1m33.837s  Q1     
18.  Hiroshi Aoyama    Aspar Honda           1m33.948s  Q1     
19.  Mike di Meglio    Avintia FTR-Kawasaki  1m34.244s  Q1     
20.  Hector Barbera    Avintia FTR-Kawasaki  1m34.332s  Q1     
21.  Karel Abraham     Cardion Honda         1m34.369s  Q1     
22.  Broc Parkes       PBM-Aprilia           1m34.764s  Q1     
23.  Michael Laverty   PBM-Aprilia           1m34.814s  Q1     

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