Relentless Marquez smashes another pole record at Misano
Sixth pole position of the year for current championship leader
Photo by: Repsol Media
Marc Marquez stormed to his sixth pole position of the year today ahead of the GP Aperol di San Marino e Riviera di Rimini at the Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli with the Spaniard smashing the outright pole position record on his Repsol Honda with a best lap of 1m 32.915s while main championship rival Jorge Lorenzo claimed a second place start setting a personal fastest time of 1m 33.428s and teammate Valentino Rossi securing a front row start with a best lap of 1m 33.573s.
I'm very happy with this pole position, as we had a really good hot lap!
Stefan Bradl will head up the third row with the LCR Honda rider setting a best time of 1m 34.098s while Go&Fun Honda Gresini’s Alvaro Bautista starts from 8th with his best time of 1m 34.230s enough to stay ahead of Ducati Team riders Andrea Dovizioso (1m 34.338s) and Nicky Hayden (1m 34.362s) with Michele Pirro continuing to fill in for the injured Ben Spies on the Ignite Pramac Racing team setting the 11th fastest time of 1m 34.467s and Energy TI Pramac teammate Andrea Iannone in 12th with a best lap of 1m 34.519s.
Bradley Smith didn’t make it into Q2 and had to settle for a 13th place start for the Monster Yamaha Tech 3 team with a best lap of 1m 34.869s while Colin Edwards had a good qualifying session on the NGM Mobile Forward Racing machine (1m 35.174s). Avintia Blusens rider Hiroshi Aoyama set the 1th best lap time of 1m 35.534s while Randy De Puniet finished the day in 16th position with a time of 1m 35.596s and Avintia Blusens rider Hector Barbera in 17th with a 1m 35.866s lap.
Claudio Corti set the 18th best time for the NGM Mobile Forward Racing team with a best lap of 1m 35.885s while Danilo Petrucci was next along for the Came IodaRacing Project team with a best lap of 1m 36.027s and Paul Bird Motorsports teammates Michael Laverty (1m 36.788s) and Yonny Hernandez (1m 36.844s) in 20th and 21st. Karel Abraham will start from 22nd for the Cardion AB Motoracing team with his best time of 1m 36.877s enough to start ahead of Go&Fun Honda Gresini CRT rider Bryan Staring (1m 37.283s) and Lukas Pesek starting from 24th on the Came IodaRacing machine with a best time of 1m 37.886s.
Despite a small fall this morning Marquez was very happy with his pace and pole position. He said, “I'm very happy with this pole position, as we had a really good hot lap! It's a shame about the small crash that we had in practice this morning - which was completely my fault - but the important thing is that we know where I made the mistake. In qualifying I felt very comfortable every time on fast laps and was able to put in some quick times. We'll see if we can fight with Jorge tomorrow, as he has a very good pace.
Valentino will also be tough to beat, because it is his home race and he has been very strong in practice; I'm sure that he will be fast tomorrow as will Dani. The aim is to get a good start, try to ride in the lead group at the front and pick up more World Championship points,” Marquez added.
Lorenzo is happy to have gained a starting place on the front row and also paid tribute to Marquez. He said, “I expected to struggle less this weekend and go faster than last year but I couldn’t be faster and I couldn't improve the bike so much. We improved a little but not enough to be closer to Marc. He made an amazing lap. We are struggling to stop the bike in braking and we have more spinning than normal in acceleration, that is why the lap time is not great. I will try to make a good start tomorrow and maybe the best strategy is to follow Marc and see how our performance is during the race.”
Rossi was very happy with his progession over the weekend so far and said, “We are satisfied with yesterday and today because we worked very well during the practice, I was always strong and we improved the setting step by step. This afternoon my bike was fantastic; it had a great setting with a lot of grip. With the second tire I was alone with no traffic and I pushed very much from the first corner with a great feeling with the bike and I improved my lap time a lot. I’m happy because it's very important to start on the front row tomorrow as Marc and Dani are very fast and also Lorenzo is very strong and very fast. Tomorrow I want to arrive on the podium so starting with them from the beginning is important to fight for it. I want a great race and I want to be on the podium!
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