Le Mans MotoGP: Marc Marquez untouchable in qualifying

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.

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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