The reigning World Champion set the fastest qualifying time for the third consecutive race in a row, and will head up a grid that includes teammate Pedrosa on the front row.
Marc Marquez left his challengers no chance during the second day of the Grand Prix of Argentina. The Repsol Honda rider dominated both free practice sessions and smashed the clock during qualifying to land his third pole position of the year. Teammate Pedrosa rounded out a good day by qualifying on the front row, and will start the race from third position behind Jorge Lorenzo.
Improving in every practice, Marc Marquez again offered himself as the favourite for the win in tomorrow’s race after leading every session. For his qualifying display, he stopped the clock at 1 minute, 37 seconds and 683 thousandths, leading Lorenzo by 0.742. Pedrosa followed as third fastest by 0.968, after following his teammate in second place during the third and fourth practice sessions, with a time of 1’38.651.
The third round of the 2014 MotoGP World Championship will mark the return of the World Championship to Argentina, to be held tomorrow at 14:00 local time.
Marc Márquez >> Audio
1st. 1:37.683 sec, 40 laps, 192 km.
“Today I really felt good on the bike and I am happy to have taken pole position! In the morning and in FP4, we worked a lot with the used tyre and this afternoon we obviously focused on qualifying. I put in a very good lap and I think that tomorrow it will be interesting to see which tyre will be required for the race, because there are various options for both the front and the rear ‒it is going to be a difficult choice! One of the keys for the race will be tyre management, in order to try to get to the end with optimal grip ‒which will allow us to make the difference.”
Dani Pedrosa >> Audio
3rd. 1.38.651 sec, 42 laps, 202 km.
“Qualifying did not go perfectly. I wasn’t as fast as I wanted to be and I know that I made a few mistakes ‒especially on the final corner‒ which hindered me a lot. However, I’m happy, because the important thing is that we had some good practice sessions. We are high up the grid for tomorrow, so we shall try to make the most of this and have a good race.”
