Fifth pole position of the year for Marc Marquez, his second in succession. Dani Pedrosa takes second on the grid, 0.171s behind.
As happened before the summer break, Marc Marquez and Dani Pedrosa were the protagonists of the qualifying session for the Indianapolis Grand Prix. The Repsol Honda team riders placed first and second, respectively in the grid-deciding session, after a second day in which Marquez led both practice sessions at the American track.
Taking a step forward from yesterday, Marquez was the fastest in the third and fourth free practices, in which Dani Pedrosa also made steady progress. Pedrosa was fourth and third, respectively, in the two sessions.
In the qualifying session, Marquez and Pedrosa took the initiative right from the start. The reigning world champion stopped the clock at 1:31.884 on his second flying lap, a time that no other rider was able to beat. Pedrosa, with several scares over the course of his last lap, came closest, with a time of 1:32.055. Tomorrow both will look to fight for victory from the front row at 14:00 local time.
Marc Marquez >> AUDIO
1st – 1:31.884, 42 laps, 175 km
“I’m happy because FP4 went very well. Maybe the 6 tenths aren’t completely ‘real’ and there is actually only one or two tenths difference, but the positive thing is that we managed to turn around the gap that we had to Jorge yesterday. There is still the warmup tomorrow and I think everybody is improving, as the track condition is changing and we have to continue to adapt to it. Right now Jorge is the toughest rival and we must be vigilant.”
Dani Pedrosa >> AUDIO
2nd – 1:32.055, 43 laps, 179 km
“Today we worked a lot with the tyres, because at the moment my race pace is slower than that of Marc and Jorge. In the qualifying session I was able to do quite well. With the second tyre I had a good feeling, but I made some mistakes in some sections of the circuit and I tried to do an extra lap ‒ which didn’t go so well. I’m happy to get a place on the front row, so we will continue working hard to try and gain a few tenths for tomorrow, because there are a couple of sectors ‒ the first two ‒ in which I am losing some time. We shall see if we can improve my riding and increase the grip a little, so that tomorrow we can be in the fight for the win.”
