Silverstone MotoGP qualifying
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That's that for us from today's MotoGP qualifying, where the likes of Valentino Rossi and Jack Miller excelled - as did Marquez, but that's basically par for the course at this point.
Check back tomorrow to see if some of his likelier Sunday rivals - ie the Yamahs or Alex Rins - can make the championship leader's life a touch more difficult.
Check back tomorrow to see if some of his likelier Sunday rivals - ie the Yamahs or Alex Rins - can make the championship leader's life a touch more difficult.
Quote
Marquez: "Honestly, with the first tyre I felt really really good, I just tried to find a really good lap, I did my lap alone and this was the main strategy.
"With the second tyre, when we go out from the pits, was much traffic but inside of that traffic I was the guy in front in the results, I was like 'okay, somebody needs to push, I will not push, I'm already in front of them'.
"The last lap, the tyres were ready, I did a very good lap - of course Valentino was in front, a little bit far, maybe I didn't take enough the slipstream, but sure, helps a little bit - but anyway, to ride on 58-low, you must be fast but also fast for the strategy."
"With the second tyre, when we go out from the pits, was much traffic but inside of that traffic I was the guy in front in the results, I was like 'okay, somebody needs to push, I will not push, I'm already in front of them'.
"The last lap, the tyres were ready, I did a very good lap - of course Valentino was in front, a little bit far, maybe I didn't take enough the slipstream, but sure, helps a little bit - but anyway, to ride on 58-low, you must be fast but also fast for the strategy."
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Rossi: "I'm very very happy. I had to do the dirty job [ahead of Marquez and Miller] - but I had just this chance. Because I don't have a lot of time, but especially nobody want to be in front.
"We work well during the weekend, the bike work well, I have good grip and I can push, and I enjoy very much during the lap."
"We work well during the weekend, the bike work well, I have good grip and I can push, and I enjoy very much during the lap."
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Miller: "I can't say I did it without a mistake - I made a little one at Turn 3, into 4, I almost touched the kerb on the outside. And sector three I seemed to struggle a lot - I just wasn't able to put it together through one way or another. We seemed to struggle a bit more with the wind in the afternoon.
"We had some dramas with the number one bike throughout the day. The old chassis, the first time I rode it was this morning, first time since Brno - it felt a little foreign but seemed to work alright. Number two bike, old faithful, comes through for me."
"We had some dramas with the number one bike throughout the day. The old chassis, the first time I rode it was this morning, first time since Brno - it felt a little foreign but seemed to work alright. Number two bike, old faithful, comes through for me."
That's pole position number 60 in the premier class for Marquez by the way. This is really not a track where he should be outpacing the turn-happy Yamahas (and Alex Rins' Suzuki) by more than four tenths.
Vinales and Dovizioso had recorded the exact same laptime by the way. I'm not entirely sure why the Spaniard is classified ahead, given Dovizioso's time almost certainly came earlier.
Information
Q2 results: 1 Marquez, 2 Rossi, 3 Miller, 4 Quartararo, 5 Rins, 6 Vinales, 7 Dovizioso, 8 Morbidelli, 9 Crutchlow, 10 Nakagami, 11 Petrucci, 12 A Espargaro.
Rossi is second, Miller is third, just 0.006s slower. Both are over four tenths down on Marquez, but they narrowly kick Quartararo off the front row.
Stopwatch
Marquez closes right up on Rossi in the final sector, and smashes the Silverstone lap record! 1m58.168s.
And they're all still running in a group - Marquez is running a couple of seconds behind Rossi and a couple of seconds ahead of Miller.
Rossi, Marquez and Miller are all up on Quartararo's lap after the first two sectors. He could be on pole, he could be fourth.
Fabio Quartararo more or less matches his previous sectors, but ends up on a 1m58.633s, two hundredths off his previous time.
Checkered flag
Vinales briefly moves up to third, before being eclipsed by Rins - who comes up just 0.003s short of Marquez!
Marquez, Rossi and Miller may have all tripped over each other on that lap, and they're leaving themselves one final go each at the chequered flag.
Dovizioso is up on Quartararo after the first three sectors, but cannot match the nimble Yamaha in the twisty final sector. He ends up third-fastest.
Crash
Crutchlow's down.
Miller, Rossi and Marquez are now all playing a waiting game on the out-lap, inviting each other to move ahead on track and lead the pack.
Dovizioso is the first rider to kick off what is presumably his final push lap, and has Nakagami in tow.
Quartararo is the last to emerge, as the team has switched him to his other bike instead - a change that appeared to be unplanned.
Marquez heads out of his pit garage ahead of Rossi, but waits for the Italian to go past on pit road. Rossi doesn't seem too amused.
Information
Q2 order: 1 Quartararo, 2 Marquez (+0.055s), 3 Miller (+0.373s), 4 Vinales (+0.489s), 5 Crutchlow (+0.631s), 6 Morbidelli (+0.817s), 7 Dovizioso (+0.903s), 8 Petrucci (+1.183s), 9 Rins (+1.396s), 10 A Espargaro (+1.492s), 11 Rossi (+1.575s), 12 Nakagami (no time).
Nakagami and Rossi have had laps chalked off, but they looked to have backed out of those respective efforts anyway.
A superb effort in from Miller puts him third ahead of Vinales, and he's much much faster than the works Ducatis.
Rossi's first lap was 1.5s off the pace, and he's now backed out of his second attempt. He'll be towards the lower end of the order after these first runs.
Stopwatch
And Quartararo's first effort is a 1m58.612s, marginally faster than Marquez but marginally slower than what the French rookie had managed in FP3.
Stopwatch
The first representative time comes in from arquez, and it's a 1m58.667s. Vinales is four tenths slower.
The likes of Dovizioso, Petrucci and Rins have rolled out from their initial attempts, so we'll get just a few representative laptimes the first time by.
Marquez has had to overtake Nakagami on his out-lap, and now looks set to drag the Japanese rider around with him through the flying lap.
But the likes of Vinales, Quartararo and Morbidelli will all be running more or less alone, likely to avoid traffic or inadvertently giving someone a tow.
Green flag
Several riders - including the likes of Dovizioso, Petrucci and Crutchlow - head out in a pack as Q2 kicks off.
Information
Q2 participants: Dovizioso, Petrucci, Vinales, Quartararo, Morbidelli, Nakagami, Crutchlow, A Espargaro, Rins, Miller, Rossi, Marquez.
Tell you what - Zarco was just a tenth off Espargaro there, in what was easily one of his better qualifying performances all year.
Lorenzo ends up 2.618s off the pace, while Abraham is a rather monumental 5.901s off, having not gone out for a second run.
Information
Q2 results: 1 Dovizioso, 2 Rins, 3 P Espargaro, 4 Zarco, 5 Oliveira, 6 Rabat, 7 Iannone, 8 Bagnaia, 9 Guintoli, 10 Syahrin, 11 Lorenzo, 12 Abraham.
Checkered flag
Chequered flag. Dovizioso and Rins aren't improving, but look well set to go through anyway.
Rins and Espargaro both improve their times, but remain 0.246s and 0.359s off the Ducati man's pace respectively. Zarco now up to fourth.
Stopwatch
Dovizioso comes up with a massive improvement, posting a 1m58.944s to all but secure his Q2 progression.
Oliveira's improved to fourth, just 0.322s off Rins, but that likely means that his Q2 challenge has petered out.
Oliveira is the first rider to begin his second run. He's a rather surprising eighth at the moment, and will surely improve before the session is out.
Karel Abraham, who crashed during FP4, is having a really miserable session, too. He's 5.4s off the pace after that first attempt, and has been pretty reliably bottom of the timing screens all weekend.
By: Jake Boxall-Legge
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