Marquez dominates COTA qualifying

A tense qualifying ended at the Circuit Of The Americas [COTA] in Texas with Marc Marquez posting an excellent 2:03.021 to take his first ever MotoGP pole position, some two-tenths ahead of Honda team-mate Pedrosa and with both HRC riders leaving the rest of the chasing pack in their wake.

Earlier, in the previous Q1 session Bradley Smith on the Tech3 Yamaha qualified well for Q2 by finishing in second place, just four-tenths behind Aleix Espargaro on the Power Electrionics Aspar. This was a qualification that proved to be fully deserved by Espargaro who went on to claim 9th position on the grid for the race, just missing out by less than a tenth to Rossi, who continued the poor qualifying that he showed in Qatar.

This disappointment of a poor session on an unfamiliar track for Rossi was doubled by Andrea Dovizioso – riding the Ducati that Rossi left behind – by claiming 6th space and a second row grid place alongside Stefan Bradl in 5th and the satellite Yamaha of Cal Crutchlow in 4th. This was a good, solid session for the British man who continues to ride with consistency on the non-factory machinery; especially here at COTA where Yamaha have been consistently off the pace when compared to their Honda counterparts. An opinion that Cal himself expressed when talking to MCN earlier in the weekend.

With the HRC Honda’s expected to leave Austin, Texas with the major honours from the GP tomorrow (Sunday) the talk of the paddock now is all centered around the rookie Marquez and the possibility of his first ever MotoGP win.

1 – Marc Marquez [2:03.021]
2 – Dani Pedrosa [2:03.275]
3 – Jorge Lorenzo [2:04.100]
4 – Cal Crutchlow [2:04.267]
5 – Stefan Bradl [2:04.445]
6 – Andrea Dovizioso [2:04.873]
7 – Alvaro Bautista [2:04.942]
8 – Valentino Rossi [2:05.380]
9 – Aleix Espargaro [2;05.389]
10 – Nicky Hayden [2:05.568]
11 – Bradley Smith [2:06.740]
12 – Ben Spies [2:07.044]
13 – Andrea Iannone [2:06.872]
14 – Randy de Puniet [2:07.129]
15 – Hector Barbera [2:07.717]
16 – Yonny Hernandez [2:07.738]
17 – Michael Laverty [2:08.259]
18 – Colin Edwards [2:08.475]
19 – Caludio Corti [2:08.792]
20 – Danilo Petrucci [2:08.825]
21 – Hiroshi Aoyama [2:09.062]
22 – Bryan Staring [2:10.098]
23 – Lukas Pesek [2:10.507]
24 – Blake Young [2:10.606]
25 – Karel Abraham [2:23.317]