Le Mans MotoGP: Marc Marquez untouchable in qualifying
Marc Marquez took his fifth consecutive MotoGP pole position in dominant fashion at Le Mans
The reigning world champion had control of the pole-deciding Q2 throughout, going fastest by six tenths of a second over Jorge Lorenzo's Yamaha with his first flying lap.
Marquez continued to improve throughout the session to keep the rest of the field at arm's length, despite twice running off track - at the end of the back straight and the first chicane.
The times tumbled throughout the field in the final couple of minutes, with Andrea Dovizioso briefly taking second before he was pushed back by Pol Espargaro with 30 seconds to go.
Friday free practice star Andrea Iannone appeared to have joined in with that scrap when he moved up to P2 inside the final two minutes, but that lap was removed by the organisers due to the Italian taking a short cut on the circuit.
Fourth-placed Stefan Bradl headed the two factory Yamahas of Valentino Rossi and Lorenzo, who were both eight tenths of a second adrift of Marquez's pole time.
There were no celebrations on the other side of the factory Honda garage, as Marquez's team-mate Dani Pedrosa - who recently had 'arm pump' surgery - could manage no better than ninth.
The Spaniard was rooted to the bottom of the top 12 for much of Q2, but he managed to move up a row on the grid in the closing stages.
Aleix Espargaro and Cal Crutchlow got through Q1, although the Brit was given a fright when Nicky Hayden went just 0.036s slower than him towards the end.
Follow the Le Mans MotoGP race day on AUTOSPORT Race Centre Live on Sunday morning, starting with Moto3 from 9.45am
Pos Rider Team/Bike Time Gap 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
Be part of the Autosport community
Join the conversationShare Or Save This Story
Subscribe and access Autosport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
Top Comments