Repsol Honda's Marc Marquez has taken his second MotoGP pole position in his rookie year at Le Mans this afternoon, picking himself up from a crash this morning to beat reigning champion Jorge Lorenzo as Valentino Rossi slumped to the third row.
The young Spaniard set the fastest time of the weekend so far, a 1'33.187, just edging out compatriot Lorenzo by 0.030s with his last lap.
“Qualifying went very well. After FP3, in which we had a small front end crash and I lost my confidence a little, I was back on it immediately. It was hard to heat up the tyres, but that was the same for everyone. I think that's the reason why there were so many crashes," said Marquez.
"I am very happy, because I think that we had a good session and have a good pace. Tomorrow we will try to give 100 per cent and see if we are fortunate enough to have a dry race. If it is a wet one, then we just have to do as well as we can.”
Andrea Dovizioso claimed the final front-row spot, proving the Ducati is, at least, good for one fast lap around the French circuit. The Italian's lap was enough to push Britain's Cal Crutchlow into fourth place despite the Monster Yamaha man busting into the 1'33s bracket after a big crash at La Chapelle in free practice four.
Stefan Bradl spent two laps shadowing Marquez and managed to get himself into fifth place ahead of Dani Pedrosa who suffered an early crash in the Dunlop chicane. He lost the front in a carbon copy of Marquez's tumble in the final free practice session this morning and despite getting back out, couldn't muster a significant time.
Alvaro Bautista took seventh place ahead of Rossi, who will not be happy after being so fast earlier in the weekend. He ended up eight-tenths slower than Marquez and only two-tenths up on Bradley Smith in ninth. Nicky Hayden rounds out the top ten with the Aspar CRT men Aleix Espargaro and Randy De Puniet in 11th and 12th.
Michael Laverty, who is getting to grips with some new Magneti Marelli eletronics, again improved his laptime to a 1'36.596 to finish in 20th.
