Marquez claims record 13th pole of season

MotoGP™ pole position at the Shell Advance Malaysian Motorcycle Grand Prix went to Marc Marquez, who notched a new premier class record 13th pole of the year on Saturday. Dani Pedrosa and Jorge Lorenzo join him on the front row after the Q2 battle.

Marquez (Repsol Honda) set a record-breaking time of 1:59.791 to secure pole ahead of teammate Pedrosa, who was 0.182s slower. The front row was completed by Lorenzo (Movistar Yamaha), who set a 2:00.203 best lap.

“I’m really happy for the pole position this weekend,” said Marquez, who crashed earlier in the day. “Especially Friday we were trying a lot of things for the future. This morning we saw that we were still struggling for the best set up. In FP4 on the second bike after the crash I felt really good and I was able to find the same feeling from the winter test. The times were really fast especially for the conditions.

“It will be a good race with Dani as he has a good rhythm. Jorge will be there at the start but Dani is very strong over race distance. If it’s wet we’ll see, anything could happen.”

Marquez is the first rider below the 2:00 mark on a race weekend at Sepang. This also marks his 50th career pole.

Marquez had already equaled the existing record of 12 premier class poles previously held jointly by Australians Casey Stoner and Mick Doohan, but now the young Spaniard holds the record outright thanks to his latest Q2 success story.

“I’m also happy to have broken the record,” Marquez added. “Maybe pole positions are somewhat insignificant because they don’t give you any points, but you achieve them by being the fastest rider over a single lap. That doesn’t mean that you will be the fastest in the race, of course, so the most important thing is what happens tomorrow.”

Pedrosa is strong at Sepang and he commented, “It was a good qualifying session. The times that were being put in were amazing, because in this heat the bikes don’t normally go that fast and the tires don’t tend to have so much grip.

“We will try to have a good race, because the last two have not been great for us. We have a strong desire to take a good result, and we also need one if we want to finish runner-up in the Championship, but the first thing that we have to do is push 100 percent tomorrow regardless of whether it rains.”

Despite the fact that the lengthy track allows little time for multiple hot laps, Lorenzo made sure to leave pit lane last for the 15 minute qualifying heat to be ensured of some clear space. When on his way the Majorcan was fast straight out of the box and posted a 2:00.469 lap to take provisional third. He was unable to improve on his time on his second try and came into the pits for a fresh set of tires with six minutes left on the clock.

Less than three minutes later Lorenzo was back out on the track for one last shot at claiming pole position and immediately posted a 2:00.203 lap, which saw him hold second place briefly, until a late effort by rival Pedrosa relegated him to third.

“I am very happy with third place on the grid, because I knew that apart from the factory team some of the other Honda riders like [Stefan] Bradl or [Alvaro] Bautista were going to be fast too,” Lorenzo said. “In the end I managed to claim the front row. I tried to get the pole position, but compared to Honda we needed just a little more acceleration when exiting the corners.

“I think we are getting closer in terms of race pace. This is probably one of the worst tracks for Yamaha, but I am very satisfied with the work we’re doing.”

Bradl (LCR Honda MotoGP) and Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team) qualified on the second row of the grid, both within a second of Marquez’ blistering lap.

Valentino Rossi (Movistar Yamaha MotoGP), Aleix Espargaro (NGM Forward Racing), Cal Crutchlow (Ducati Team), Bradley Smith (Monster Yamaha Tech 3) and Bautista (GO&FUN Honda Gresini) completed the top 10.

Pol Espargaro (Monster Yamaha Tech3) qualified in 12^th, having advanced to Q2 but then being unfit to participate due to a big FP3 crash, which saw him break a bone in his left foot. His fitness to race will be assessed on Sunday morning.

Hiroshi Aoyama (Drive M7 Aspar) fell early in the Q2 session having advanced from Q1. The Japanese rider still qualified in 11th due to Pol Espargaro not taking part.

Andrea Iannone (Pramac Racing) was declared unfit to participate further in the Grand Prix earlier in the day due to left arm injuries after his Friday crash left him struggling for strength and power.

Tito Rabat starts from pole in Moto2™ at the Shell Advance Malaysian Motorcycle Grand Prix, as he looks to clinch the title, with Mika Kallio and Sandro Cortese completing the front row.

A time of 2:07.429 put Rabat (Marc VDS Racing Team) on pole ahead of title rival and teammate Kallio, who was just 0.158s slower. The front row was completed by Cortese (Dynavolt Intact GP), who was 0.277s behind Rabat.

It was a dominant pole performance for the Championship leader, never leaving the top spot on the time sheets. This is Rabat’s 10th pole position of the season. A top two finish by Kallio is the only way for him to postpone the title decider to Valencia and even then the Finn would be relying on Rabat’s result, with 41 points between them and two races to go.

The top five was completed by impressive rookie Maverick Viñales (Paginas Amarillas HP 40) and the resurgent Thomas Luthi (Interwetten Sitag), who both finished on the podium last time out at Phillip Island. Takaaki Nakagami (IDEMITSU Honda Team Asia) is also on row two.

Julian Simon (Italtrans Racing Team), Johann Zarco (AirAsia Caterham), Dominique Aegerter (Technomag CarXpert) and Axel Pons (AGR Team) completed the top ten, all within 0.715s of pole. 

Moto3™ qualifying saw Jack Miller secure pole as he bids to keep his title fight alive, the Australian joined by John McPhee and Jakub Kornfeil on the front row.

A stunning lap of 2:12.450 saw Miller (Red Bull KTM Ajo) claim his eighth pole of the year ahead of McPhee (SaxoPrint-RTG). The Scottish rider was 0.459s off pole, while Kornfeil (Calvo Team) completed the front row and was 0.566s from Miller. Miller’s lap was almost 1.5 seconds faster than Luis Salom’s previous pole record from last year.

Efren Vazquez (SaxoPrint-RTG) and Alex Marquez (Estrella Falicia 0,0) completed the top five, despite Marquez falling. Marquez goes into the race with his first chance of wrapping up the 2014 Moto3™ World Championship title.

–From motogp.com

MotoGP Qualifying Results (courtesy Repsol Honda)

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