Reigning MotoGP World Champion Marc Marquez has taken his ninth pole position of the season at Brno this afternoon but it was disaster for Valentino Rossi who crashed out of the final free practice session and had to seek medical attention in the Clinca Mobile.
Rossi damaged his left little finger in the crash when he lost the front and struggled to get his Dainese glove on before qualifying two. He managed to set a 1’55.821 for seventh place on the grid, just behind team-mate Jorge Lorenzo, who simply couldn’t find the pace.
Marquez didn’t manage to equal Cal Crutchlow pole record of 1’55.527, set last year, but the Repsol Honda man was only fractions behind with a 1’55.587 with the top eight riders covered by three-tenths of a second.
Andrea Dovizioso took second place for the second weekend in succession, using the soft-tyre option to lap only a tenth slower than Marquez while Pramac Ducati’s Andrea Iannone completes the front row.
The Pramac Ducati man followed Marquez for two laps to set his time and was only 0.012s behind the factory Desmosedici of Dovizioso - using the soft tyre in his pursuit of Marquez.
Britain’s Bradley Smith went out on the hard compound front tyre for his final run and bounced up to the head of row two with a 1’55.730. He is the fastest of the Yamaha men and finished ahead of Dani Pedrosa.
Lorenzo was a quarter of a second off the pace in sixth place with Rossi behind, while Smith’s Monster Yamaha team-mate Pol Espargaro in ninth and his brother Aleix in tenth place and half a second off the pace. Crutchlow was a further 0.039s behind Espargaro with Yonny Hernandez in 12th.
Scott Redding tumbled off his number one Go&Fun production Honda at the end of free practice four and had to use his spare bike in qualifying one. He ended qualifying in 15th place with Leon Camier three places further back in 18th with a best lap of 1’58.635. Michael Laverty ended in 22nd.
