Repsol Honda’s Marc Marquez claimed his 23rd MotoGP pole position in Austin, after stopping on track with just three minutes to go in the qualifying session for Sunday’s race.
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The reigning world champion had to run down the pit lane to retrieve his second bike with only seconds to spare as the clock ticked down on Q2.
Not even this could stop the Spaniard as he went on to set the fastest ever time on two-wheels around the Circuit of the Americas, at 2min 02.135sec, over six-tenths quicker than his previous lap record set in qualifying last year.
Marquez finished ahead of Andrea Dovizioso (+0.339s ) on the Ducati Team GP15, and Movistar Yamaha’s Jorge Lorenzo (+0.405s) who completed the front row.
Lorenzo’s team-mate Valentino Rossi (+0.428s) will start from the front of the second row, with Britons Cal Crutchlow (+0.478s) and Scott Redding (+0.539s) on their Factory spec Honda’s in 5th and 6th respectively.
The second factory Ducati of Andrea Iannone will start from 7th, with the Team Suzuki Ecstar of Aleix Espargaro (8th) finishing ahead of his brother Pol (Monster Tech 3 Yamaha) in 9th.
And he does it!! Marquez smashes his own lap record to claim pole, a 2’02.135!! Amazing lap on his spare bike from the #MotoGP World Champ
— Bridgestone MotoGP (@BSMotoGP) April 11, 2015
Bradley Smith, Danilo Petrucci and Maverick Viñales will form the 4th row of the grid for today’s race.
Earlier on, it was the Factory Ducati GP15 of Andrea Iannone and Team Suzuki Ecstar’s Maverick Viñales who made it through from Q1.
Earlier, Marquez topped the timesheets ahead of Crutchlow in free practice three which ended up deciding who would make it through to Q2.
