Repsol Honda’s Marc Marquez has stormed to pole position for tomorrow’s Phillip Island MotoGP in a qualifying session which saw some hangbags between Jorge Lorenzo and Andrea Iannone after the Italian copped two tows from the Spaniard and pipped him for second place on the final run.
Marquez put in a 1’28.364 - still a long way outside Lorenzo’s pole record - on his final run and backed it up with another in the 1’28s after a near crash on his second run after trying a lap with the extra soft front instead of the preferred aysmmetric version but switched back for his last attempt.
Lorenzo also tried a three-run strategy but had no answer for Marquez and ended three-tenths down on his fellow Spaniard. He was angry with Iannone for grabbing a tow twice in the session, saying the Ducati already has a six-tenth advantage with the soft-tyre concession and had not need to follow him round. However, the Mallorcan was pleased with his time which was identical to Iannone’s but he drops to third as Iannone’s next fastest lap was marginally faster.
Dani Pedrosa had been on the front row with a 1’28.712 but was knocked back to the second row in the dying seconds. Britain’s Cal Crutchlow ended the session in fifth place with a 1’28.912 which was enough to bust Maverick Vinales down to sixth and the outside of row two.
Valentino Rossi couldn’t mirror his qualifying performance from Motegi and starts from the third row, meaning he has a lot of traffic in between himself and title rival Lorenzo at the start of tomorrow’s race. The Doctor will be thankful that Lorenzo will not have an entirely clear path to turn one as he has a Honda and a Ducati to deal with.
Aleix Espargaro bagged eighth place after getting involved in a dummy spit with Alvaro Bautista, one ahead of his brother Pol while Andrea Dovizioso completed the top ten on the second works Ducati. The Italian will be scratching his head as team-mate Iannone is almost a second faster over one lap.
Britain’s Scott Redding made it into qualifying two by right after a fast lap in free practice three and ended his qualifying in 11th place, one ahead of Bradley Smith who had to recover from a whopping crash in FP4 which took him entirely by surprise. Hector Barbera was top Open class rider in 14th, one ahead of Jack Miller while Eugene Laverty was one place further back
