Reigning MotoGP World Champion Marc Marquez has bagged pole position for tomorrow’s Brno round, heading Valentino Rossi by less than a tenth of a second with Dani Pedrosa only fractions of a second further back to complete the front row.
Pedrosa set the early pace with a 1’55.313 and that time wasn’t headed until Marquez went out for his final run, putting a 1’54.981 as the fastest lap of the weekend but Rossi was in close attendance and ending with a 1’55.073 for second place.
Pedrosa ran him close, however, and his last effort was a 1’55.117 to secure the final front-row position as the chequered flag was waved.
Ducati’s Andrea Dovizoso found pace in the final minutes to head the second row with a 1’55.441 while Cal Crutchlow fought to fifth place after a big crash this morning. The LCR Honda man has suffered a suspected back injury and will have to go to hospital for a check-up this afternoon.
Ducati’s Jorge Lorenzo took the newly-bewinged GP17 to sixth place. The former champion is only just over half a second off the pace and he has Maverick Vinales, who replaced him at Yamaha, behind him. Vinales is struggling in sector two and can’t make the Movistar-backed M1 turn but still managed a 1’55.663.
Danilo Petrucci came through qualifying one to take eighth place while Alvaro Bautista, also a Q1 man, finished in front of Monster Yamaha’s Johann Zarco. Aleix Espargaro suffered a crash to add to his spill in FP4, so ended in 11th with Loris Baz 12th.
Alex Rins missed a Q2 spot by just six one-thousandths of a second, so will start his Ecstar Suzuki in 13th place, just ahead of Jonas Folger and Jack Miller. Pol Espargaro suffered a crash after beginning Q1 very well while Sam Lowes also crashed but got back out to finish in 22nd.
It was another disaster for Scott Redding, who will have everyone in front of him on tomorrow’s grid.
