Repsol Honda’s Marc Marquez bagged his 60th pole position today at the Austin MotoGP round with the quickest lap of the weekend so far but was run close by Jorge Lorenzo with Valentino Rossi taking the final front row spot.Marquez and Lorenzo traded times for the full 15 minutes as the Movistar Yamaha man laid down a marker with his second lap, sticking in a 2’03.613 to give the Honda man a stiff target to aim for.
But Marquez was up to the challenge, launching a 2’03.188 on just his third lap and that was enough to secure top spot for tomorrow’s race.
Lorenzo came out again for his second run but just couldn’t match Marquez’ time but was less than a tenth of a second shy on a 2’03.257.
Rossi started slowly on his Movistar Yamaha but hopped into third right at the end of the first run. He was then beaten back by a 2’03.913 by Andrea Iannone but his final run saw The Doctor snatch back the final front-row spot with a 2’03.644.
Iannone’s time kept him in fourth place, one ahead of Maverick Vinales who looked desperately disappointed to be more than a second off the pace in fifth place while Cal Crutchlow’s 2’04.265 was enough to keep him on the second row.
Andrea Dovizioso and Dani Pedrosa will be wondering where there respective team-mate have found their pace from. For Pedrosa, who is struggling with acceleration, it is the Marquez/Austin factor but Dovizioso is some four-tenths in arrears.
Aleix Espargaro brought the second Ecstar Suzuki up from qualifying one and managed to so a number on Scott Redding to take the final spot on row three.
Redding heads row four with Bradley Smith, who has performed some sort of miracle with the Monster Yamaha to get through Q1 as the fastest man, but to also finish in 11th place.
The Briton has turned his setup upside down to try and find a way to ride the M1 as his favoured front tyre is no available and has given himself a fighting chance tomorrow. Loris Baz ended his qualifying in 12th place.
Pol Espargaro didn’t make it into Q2 so stays in 13th, one ahead of Hector Barbera who got into a last-lap scrap with old enemy Alvaro Bautisa which ruined both of their chances in Q1. They have Eugene Laverty for company on row five.