Repsol Honda rider takes second MotoGP pole position for French GP. Dani Pedrosa will start race from sixth, despite qualifying crash.
Marc continues to grow in strength in his rookie MotoGP season. Today, the Repsol Honda rider took a second pole in his first four races, heading the grid for the French Grand Prix. The current World Championship leader managed to bounce back from a crash in free practice and use his talent to the full in a majestic lap. Less fortunate was teammate Dani Pedrosa, who crashed at the start of the qualifying session and had his chances of fighting for a position on the first row of the grid severely hampered. Pedrosa will start from the second row, after setting the sixth fastest time.
In free practice, the reigning Moto2 World Champion had already shown that he was a contender for pole, achieving the best time of the session today –1’33.600. He was almost half a second quicker than second-placed Jorge Lorenzo, and 0.582 ahead of Pedrosa –third with a time of 1’34.182. In the short 30 minute final practice session, a crash at Turn 2 prevented further improvement for Marquez, although he returned quickly on track and placed second behind Lorenzo and ahead of Pedrosa.
In the decisive qualifying session, Marquez’s fourth lap of nine saw him clock a best time of 1’33.187. That was enough to give him pole, by 30 thousandths of a second, from Lorenzo. Pedrosa had a light crash that required him to return to the pits and use his second bike, but he had little time in which to improve. His fastest time was on the last of his six laps, giving him sixth spot on the grid.
Rain is expected tomorrow, although the changeable conditions at Le Mans mean that nothing can be taken for granted.
Dani Pedrosa >> Audio
FP3: 1:34.182, 21 laps, 88 km.
Q2: 1:33.639, 6 laps, 25 km.
“The afternoon practice sessions were difficult. I crashed in qualifying then had to go back to the garage and only had a little time left on the clock when I got back out on track. I wasn’t able to make the best use of the session, but at least I was able to clock a fairly decent time and place sixth. It is a pity, because we could have been much higher up the grid. For tomorrow we will have to try to get a good start, come back up through the field and have a good race.”
Marc Marquez >> Audio
FP3: 1:33.600, 21 laps, 88 km.
Q2: 1:33.187, 9 laps, 38 km.
“Qualifying went very well. After FP3, in which we had a small front end crash and I lost my confidence a little, I was back on it immediately. It was hard to heat up the tyres, but that was the same for everyone. I think that’s the reason why there were so many crashes. I am very happy, because I think that we had a good session and have a good pace. Tomorrow we will try to give 100% and see if we are fortunate enough to have a dry race. If it is a wet one, then we just have to do as well as we can.”
