Austin MotoGP: Marc Marquez storms to pole in all-Honda front row
Marc Marquez cruised to his second consecutive pole of the 2014 MotoGP season after breaking the lap record in qualifying at Austin
The practice pacesetter was once again on a different level to the rest of the field and went to the top of the timesheets on his first lap, where he remained until the end of the session.
The reigning champion beat his previous track lap record on his second tour of the circuit and continued to improve which each lap.
His best was saved until the last when he produced a blistering 2m02.773s, smashing the previous time by 0.273 seconds.
Dani Pedrosa was the only rider within 0.3s of his Honda team-mate, while LCR's Stefan Bradl underlined his practice pace in qualifying and completes an all-Honda front row.
Aleix Espargaro continued to be the quickest Open class competitor, but it was not plain sailing for the Forward rider as he was forced to participate in Q1 after struggling during practice.
The Yamahas of Jorge Lorenzo and Valentino Rossi line up alongside him on the second row, ahead of Cal Crutchlow who was the fastest Ducati, although his day ended with a mechanical issue and he had to push-start his bike.
His former Tech 3 team-mate Bradley Smith struggled to hook up a good lap and lost time in the final sector. The Briton starts ahead of Andrea Iannone in eighth.
Follow all the race day action from the Austin MotoGP round on AUTOSPORT Race Centre Live from 4pm UK time on Sunday April 13
Pos Rider Team/Bike Time Gap 1. Marc Marquez Honda 2m02.773s 2. Dani Pedrosa Honda 2m03.062s +0.289s 3. Stefan Bradl LCR Honda 2m03.196s +0.423s 4. Aleix Espargaro Forward Yamaha 2m03.240s +0.467s 5. Jorge Lorenzo Yamaha 2m03.243s +0.470s 6. Valentino Rossi Yamaha 2m03.244s +0.471s 7. Cal Crutchlow Ducati 2m03.780s +1.007s 8. Bradley Smith Tech 3 Yamaha 2m03.800s +1.027s 9. Andrea Iannone Pramac Ducati 2m03.842s +1.069s 10. Andrea Dovizioso Ducati 2m03.846s +1.073s 11. Pol Espargaro Tech 3 Yamaha 2m03.913s +1.140s 12. Alvaro Bautista Gresini Honda 2m03.923s +1.150s 13. Scott Redding Gresini Honda 2m04.617s Q1 14. Nicky Hayden Aspar Honda 2m05.062s Q1 15. Yonny Hernandez Pramac Ducati 2m05.677s Q1 16. Hiroshi Aoyama Aspar Honda 2m05.788s Q1 17. Karel Abraham Cardion Honda 2m06.239s Q1 18. Hector Barbera Avintia FTR-Kawasaki 2m06.270s Q1 19. Colin Edwards Forward Yamaha 2m06.741s Q1 20. Michael Laverty PBM Aprilia 2m06.939s Q1 21. Broc Parkes PBM Aprilia 2m07.403s Q1 22. Danilo Petrucci Ioda Aprilia 2m07.745s Q1 23. Mike di Meglio Avintia FTR-Kawasaki 2m07.761s Q1
Be part of the Autosport community
Join the conversationShare Or Save This Story
Subscribe and access Autosport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
Top Comments