Indianapolis MotoGP: Marquez shatters lap record en route to pole

Marc Marquez shattered the lap record today at Indianapolis to take pole position as he dominated the rest of the field on his Repsol Honda.

The championship leader, still in his rookie year, beat the lap record set by Dani pedrosa last year by 0.8, to finish half a second faster than second placed Jorge Lorenzo.

Pedrosa, previously dominant at the American circuit, was third, still recovering from a damaged shoulder, while Cal Crutchlow took his place as perennial best privateer to put his Tech 3 Yamaha fourth.

Alvaro Bautista was fifth, while Nicky Hayden was the best American, putting his Ducati on sixth spot.

THe third row was headed by Bradley Smith, ahead of Stefan Bradl, after a fall at turn one ruined his weekend-long run of top threes.

Arguably the most disappointed rider of the day will be Valentino Rossi, languishing back in ninth after a disaster of a session. Rossi has been struggling with corner turn-in issues all weekend on his Yamaha M1.

The second factory Ducati of Andrea Dovizioso was tenth, with Andrea Iannone on the sole privateer Ducati after a crash for Ben Spies this morning forced him out of the rest of the weekend’s activities.

Colin Edwards made it through from Q1 for the first time this season at one of his home races to take the final grid spot of Q2.

1 93 Marc MARQUEZ SPA Repsol Honda Team Honda 1’37.958
2 99 Jorge LORENZO SPA Yamaha Factory Racing Yamaha 1’38.471 0.513 / 0.513
3 26 Dani PEDROSA SPARepsol Honda Team Honda 1’38.485 0.527 / 0.014
4 35 Cal CRUTCHLOW GBR Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Yamaha 1’38.502 0.544 / 0.017
5 19 Alvaro BAUTISTA SPA GO&FUN Honda Gresini Honda 1’38.872 0.914 / 0.370
6 69 Nicky HAYDEN USA Ducati Team Ducati 1’39.142 1.184 / 0.270
7 38 Bradley SMITH GBR Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Yamaha 1’39.255 1.297 / 0.113
8 6 Stefan BRADL GER LCR Honda MotoGP Honda 1’39.313 1.355 / 0.058
9 46 Valentino ROSSI ITA Yamaha Factory Racing Yamaha 1’39.356 1.398 / 0.043
10 4 Andrea DOVIZIOSO ITA Ducati Team Ducati 1’39.555 1.597 / 0.199
11 29 Andrea IANNONE ITA Energy T.I. Pramac Racing Ducati 1’40.042 2.084 / 0.487
12 5 Colin EDWARDS USA NGM Mobile Forward Racing FTR Kawasaki 1’40.372 2.414 / 0.330
13 41 Aleix ESPARGARO SPA Power Electronics Aspar ART 1’40.444
14 9 Danilo PETRUCCI ITA Came IodaRacing Project Ioda-Suter 1’41.122
15 14 Randy DE PUNIET FRA Power Electronics Aspar ART 1’41.154
16 71 Claudio CORTI ITA NGM Mobile Forward Racing FTR Kawasaki 1’41.334
17 8 Hector BARBERA SPA Avintia Blusens FTR 1’41.527
18 70 Michael LAVERTY GBR Paul Bird Motorsport PBM 1’41.618
19 7 Hiroshi AOYAMA JPN Avintia Blusens FTR 1’41.665
20 67 Bryan STARING AUS GO&FUN Honda Gresini FTR Honda 1’41.786
21 68 Yonny HERNANDEZ COL Paul Bird Motorsport ART 1’41.807
22 52 Lukas PESEK CZE Came IodaRacing Project Ioda-Suter 1’41.868
23 17 Karel ABRAHAM CZE Cardion AB Motoracing ART 1’42.165
24 79 Blake YOUNG USA Attack Performance Racing APR  1’44.472