Marc Marquez has completely turned around his Catalan MotoGP weekend, going from the wrong end of the top ten yesterday and taking advantage of his Honda’s liking of the new track configuration to bag pole position by almost half a second from reigning world champion Jorge Lorenzo.
Marquez stuck in a 1’43.909 on his first flying lap, which would have been good enough for top spot had he parked it at that point, but the youngster then went out and upped his game to a 1’43.589 on his final flying lap and was fastest in all four sectors in both laps.
Lorenzo’s Yamaha is not at all happy with the chicane the field is now using at the end of the lap but he still managed second with a 1’44.056 while Dani Pedrosa stuck his version of the factory Honda in third place with a 1’44.307 but is seven-tenths slower than his team-mate.
Hector Barbera was on for a front-row start with his 1’44.322 but was pushed down by Lorenzo. The Avintia Ducati man used Maverick Vinales as a marker - but not for an outright tow - while Valentino Rossi bit his screen to take fifth place away from Vinales and his seventh lap of 1’44.329.
Those two laps were enough to depose Britain’s Cal Crutchlow to the head of the third row of the grid and he has Andrea Iannone and Danilo Petrucci for company while Andrea Dovizioso - who came through from qualifying one - went ahead of Scott Redding for tenth and Pol Espargaro took 12th place.
Brother Aleix took his Ecstar Suzuki to 13th place after missing out on a Q2 spot as did Bradley Smith, who found some pace between free practice three and qualifying. Ducati test rider Michele Pirro finished ahead of Yonny Hernadez and Eugene Laverty in 17th.
