World Championship leader on the limit in qualifying for his fifth pole position of the season. Pedrosa will begin British GP from second row, in fifth.
A phenomenal lap time for Marc Marquez in the 15 minute qualifying session for the British Grand Prix took him to pole position in MotoGP for the fifth time. The World Championship leader engaged in a breathtaking duel with Jorge Lorenzo, eventually winning out by 0.128s. Not even Marquez himself was able to match that time, but it was not required as he clinched the top spot. Dani Pedrosa was only able to take advantage of one of his two hot lap attempts, and will start the race from fifth.
The second day of practice at Silverstone again showed the top form of Marc Marquez. He was quickest in the third free practice session, then lowered his times in the fourth session (although he would place fourth) and then rounded off the day with an awesome 2:00.691 lap in qualifying.
Dani Pedrosa was unable to improve in the third session, but took a step forward in the final free practice to place second ‒11 milliseconds off Jorge Lorenzo’s time. In qualifying he cut another half-second off his best time, stopping the clock at 2’01.624. However, his second attempt at a hot lap saw the Repsol Honda rider make a mistake, dropping him down to the second row in fifth place.
Dani Pedrosa >> Audio
FP3 – 2:03.581, 16 laps, 94 km.
QP – 2:01.624, 7 laps, 41 km.
“We improved our pace today and drew some positive conclusions from practice. However, in qualifying things didn’t go that well for us. I made a couple of mistakes and was unable to get a better starting position. We will start from fifth, so the important thing for us will be to focus on getting the setup right, putting in the maximum effort to get a good start and have a strong race.”
Marc Marquez >> Audio
FP3 – 2:02.485, 17 laps, 100 km.
QP – 2:00.691, 7 laps, 41 km.
“I am very happy with pole position and this one carries even more value as we set a new record! The lap times were very fast, we managed an incredible lap and Jorge set the bar very high for us. We put in a better hot lap than I had expected; I hadn’t anticipated riding so fast! The race will be tough tomorrow and we will have to remain very focused, because I think that Jorge is the strongest rival that we have here. We will need to get a good start and see if we can stick with him.”
