Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda RC213V) stormed to pole position at Le Mans this afternoon, the World Championship leader beating off a challenge from reigning World Champion Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha) by three hundredths of a second. Stefan Bradl (LCR Honda RC213V) and Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda RC213V) will both start tomorrow’s French Grand Prix from the second row of the grid after qualifying fifth and sixth fastest.
Remarkable rookie Marquez started practice yesterday morning having never ridden a lap of the legendary French track aboard a MotoGP bike, and yet by the end of the day he was second fastest, 0.134 seconds behind team-mate Pedrosa. The reigning Moto2 World Champion commented that Le Mans is a small and tight track, and that it feels a lot smaller and tighter on a MotoGP bike than a Moto2 machine! In the final pre-qualifying practice session Marquez slid off at Turn Two – the first left-hander that claimed five riders today – but that hardly affected his confidence at all.
This is the 20-year-old Spaniard’s second premier-class pole, following his pole position at last month’s Grand Prix of the Americas, which made him the youngest premier-class pole sitter in GP history. He backed that up with victory the next day, making him the youngest premier-class race winner.
Marc Marquez, Repsol Honda: pole position, 1m 33.187s
“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. I am very happy, because I think that we had a good session and have a good peace. 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.”
Dani Pedrosa, Repsol Honda: 6th, 1m 33.639s
“The afternoon practice sessions were difficult. I crashed in qualifying, so I had to go back to the garage and only had a little time left on the clock when I got back out on track. I was not able to make the best use of the session, but at least I was able to clock a fairly decent time and place sixth. It is a pity, because we could have been much higher up the grid. For tomorrow we will have to try to get a good start, get back up through the field and have a good race.”
Repsol Honda Team Press Release
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