Having taken MotoGP™ pole at the Gran Premio d’Italia TIM on Saturday afternoon Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda Team) heads the grid again for Sunday’s sixth race of the year, with Andrea Iannone (Pramac Racing) and Jorge Lorenzo (Movistar Yamaha MotoGP) also featuring on the front row.
A 1:47.270 lap gave Marquez his sixth consecutive pole this year and his seventh successive top grid spot including Valencia last year, as his perfect form continued.
“I’m very happy to have taken this pole position at a track that I found very difficult last year,” Marquez said. “I’ve felt good on the bike right from the opening practice session this time around, and this shows that we are working well this season – because in 2013 it was much harder to be up at the front. As for the race, it will be difficult to break away and do what I’ve been doing up to now, because at this track you tend to ride in a group and things are more tightly packed.”
An excellent effort from Iannone (+0.18s) saw him show his pace again to get his first premier class front row start, the perfect response to his two recent DNF results and an ideal performance from an Italian rider on an Italian bike at the Gran Premio d’Italia TIM.
The Ducati rider also claimed a new MotoGP™ top speed record in FP3, flying at 349.6km/h through the speed trap.
Come qualifying Iannone was able to take advantage of the Open class’ extra soft tire and put in an impressive 1:47.450s. This lap time was just 0.180s slower than the dominant Marquez.
From second on the grid Iannone is in a good spot to improve on his best placed finish of sixth in MotoGP. The Italian has won at Mugello twice in Moto2™.
“I am very happy for my first time on the front row in MotoGP,” Iannone said. “It wasn’t easy. I want to thank Ducati, because on the straight the bike is incredible. But I pushed very hard with the first soft tire and this is where I got my best time.”
Lorenzo got his third row one result of the year in third place, meanwhile, as he lapped a quarter of a second off Marquez.
“We’re satisfied with this third place. It’s more or less second place because the Open class have the extra soft tire that helps them. I’m very happy. More than that I am happy about my physical condition, as it has returned to the level of last year. I can keep a constant pace for more than a few laps,” he reflected.
Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda) still holds the pole record at Mugello with his 1:47.157s time from last year – and he qualified in fourth position with a late lap 0.314s from Saturday’s pole.
A big crash on an out lap ended Monster Yamaha Tech3 rider Pol Espargaro’s session early as he went down at turn nine and was clearly annoyed, but the Spaniard was unhurt and still ended up fifth on the grid.
A good qualifying result for Cal Crutchlow (Ducati Team) in sixth saw him outperform teammate Andrea Dovizioso who was eighth.
Sandwiching Dovizioso on the third row are Bradley Smith (Monster Yamaha Tech3) and Stefan Bradl (LCR Honda MotoGP) in seventh and ninth places respectively, with all three qualifying within 0.5s of pole.
Valentino Rossi (Movistar Yamaha MotoGP) did not get the Q2 result he wanted as he qualified down in 10th for his 300th Grand Prix race.
Alvaro Bautista (GO&FUN Honda Gresini) and Aleix Espargaro (NGM Forward Racing) made it through from Q1 but were ultimately 11th and 12th.
DRIVE M7 Aspar’s Nicky Hayden was unable to ride at Mugello on Saturday due to wrist pain and plans to undergo surgery in Italy on Tuesday.
After completing just 11 laps on Friday Hayden took the decision just moments before FP3 that he will take no further part in the sixth round of the MotoGP™ World Championship.
The American has suffered with the problem since round four in Spain but treatment in between races has allowed him to continue racing. However, at such a demanding circuit as Mugello the swelling and pain became unbearable and the best option for ‘The Kentucky Kid’ was to pull out.
The Moto2™ race on Sunday at Mugello will commence with Esteve Rabat (Marc VDS Racing) at the front of the grid, ahead of Sam Lowes (Speed Up) and Sandro Cortese (Dynavolt Intact GP) on the first row.
Rabat led for the majority of the session and a best lap time of 1:52.718 saw him claim pole position for the fourth time this season. Lowes and Cortese completed the top three and both were within 0.197s of the Spanish rider. It is rookie Lowes’ first front row in Moto2.
The top five was completed by Jonas Folger (AGR Team) and Dominique Aegerter (Technomag CarXpert), Folger maintaining his top five spot for much of the session, whilst Aegerter improved in the closing stages. The pair were just 0.290s and 0.375s from Rabat respectively.
Moto3™ qualifying ended with Alex Rins (Estrella Galicia 0,0) outperforming the rest of the field at the picturesque Mugello track, with Jack Miller (Red Bull KTM Ajo) and Jakub Kornfeil (Calvo Team) joining him on the front row.
Rins lost the front at turn 2 and crashed just after setting a new Moto3 Mugello pole record time of 1:56.999, later rejoining the session having rushed back to his box after the incident.
Championship leader Miller was just over 0.25s behind the Spaniard in second place, while a late improvement from Kornfeil left him 0.327s adrift of Rins in third – for his first ever front row GP start.
–From motogp.com
MotoGP Qualifying Results (courtesy Repsol Honda)
1 |
Marc Marquez |
93 |
ESP |
Repsol Honda Team |
HONDA |
1’47.270 |
2 |
Andrea Iannone |
29 |
ITA |
Pramac Racing |
DUCATI |
1’47.450 |
3 |
Jorge Lorenzo |
99 |
ESP |
Yamaha Factory Racing |
YAMAHA |
1’47.521 |
4 |
Dani Pedrosa |
26 |
ESP |
Repsol Honda Team |
HONDA |
1’47.584 |
5 |
Pol Espargaro |
44 |
ESP |
Monster Yamaha Tech 3 |
YAMAHA |
1’47.612 |
6 |
Cal Crutchlow |
35 |
GBR |
Ducati Team |
DUCATI |
1’47.659 |
7 |
Bradley Smith |
38 |
GBR |
Monster Yamaha Tech 3 |
YAMAHA |
1’47.681 |
8 |
Andrea Dovizioso |
4 |
ITA |
Ducati Team |
DUCATI |
1’47.754 |
9 |
Stefan Bradl |
6 |
GER |
LCR Honda MotoGP |
HONDA |
1’47.765 |
10 |
Valentino Rossi |
46 |
ITA |
Yamaha Factory |
YAMAHA |
1’47.791 |
11 |
Alvaro Bautista |
19 |
ESP |
Go & Fun Honda Gresini |
HONDA |
1’48.132 |
12 |
Aleix Espargaro |
41 |
ESP |
NGM Mobile Forward Racing |
YAMAHA |
1’48.218 |
13 |
Yonny Hernandez |
68 |
COL |
Pramac Racing |
DUCATI |
1’48.722 |
14 |
Scott Redding |
45 |
GBR |
Go & Fun Honda Gresini |
HONDA |
1’48.754 |
15 |
Michele Pirro |
51 |
ITA |
Ducati Team |
DUCATI |
1’48.794 |
16 |
Karel Abraham |
17 |
CZE |
Cardion AB Motoracing |
HONDA |
1’48.894 |
17 |
Hiroshi Aoyama |
7 |
JPN |
Drive M7 Aspar |
HONDA |
1’49.505 |
18 |
Colin Edwards |
5 |
USA |
NGM Mobile Forward Racing |
YAMAHA |
1’49.780 |
19 |
Hector Barbera |
8 |
ESP |
Avintia Racing MotoGP |
FTR-KAWASAKI |
1’49.932 |
20 |
Michael Laverty |
70 |
GBR |
Paul Bird Motorsport |
ART & PBM |
1’50.505 |
21 |
Mike Di Meglio |
63 |
FRA |
Avintia Racing MotoGP |
FTR-KAWASAKI |
1’50.515 |
22 |
Broc Parkes |
23 |
AUS |
Paul Bird Motorsport |
PBM |
1’50.875 |
23 |
Michel Fabrizio |
84 |
ITA |
IodaRacing Project |
IODA-SUTER |
1’53.116 |
24 |
Nicky Hayden |
69 |
USA |
Drive M7 Aspar |
HONDA |
DNS |
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