Photography by Gold & Goose
Repsol Honda’s Marc Marquez turned in another record-setting performance in qualifying Saturday for the Malaysian Grand Prix. The double world champion broke the official MotoGP lap record at Sepang with a time of 1:59.791, winning the pole and becoming the first rider ever to record 13 poles in a single season. The brilliant Marquez will be joined on the front row by his teammate Dani Pedrosa and MoviStar Yamaha’s Jorge Lorenzo.
Riders had to deal with the hottest track temperatures of the season, with the pavement reaching a scorching 136 degrees.
Both Rossi and Marquez crashed in FP4. Missing qualifying was Andrea Iannone and Pol Espargaro. Iannone still suffering a lot of pain from a crash he suffered Friday, and Espargaro who crashed heavily in Saturday morning’s practice session, after his machine suffered a punctured radiator causing it to leak oil. Espargaro suffered a broken left foot. He has not fully ruled out attempting to race Sunday. If he decides to race he will start 12th on the grid since he qualified to go straight into Q2with his FP4 time.
Alvaro Bautista and Hiroshi Aoyama made it into the final Q2 session by topping Q1. American Nicky Hayden came close, but missed out on Q2, leading late, but ultimately finishing fourth in the Q1 session.
Aoyama crashed at high speed early in Q2. He was up and OK, but it was not the kind of birthday present the Japanese rider, who turned 33 today, was hoping for. He was back on the track later with his backup bike.
In the first part of Q2 it was Marquez clocking a 2:00.245, which not only put him P1, but was the fastest time of the weekend to that point. Marquez continued his mastery of the Sepang Circuit when with a minute left in the session he became the first rider to dip into the 1:59 bracket during a race weekend, when he recorded a 1:59.791. Repsol Honda teammate also broke into the 1:59s with a 1:59.973. It was the fourth time this year the factory Honda riders qualified first and second.
Coming off two wins in the last three rounds, Lorenzo finished the day third fastest with a 2:00.203 to secure the final front-row starting position. It was the ninth front-row start for both Pedrosa and Lorenzo.
Stefan Bradl, Andrea Dovizioso and Valentino Rossi make up the second row.
“I’m really happy for the pole position,” Marquez said. “This weekend, especially on Friday, we were trying different things to try to understand for the future. But we saw this morning that still we were not able to find the best setup, but as is before with the second bike after the crash I feel really good. I feel so constant too and I find the same lines and the same feeling like in the winter test. So on the backup bike I was really fast, I was surprised for the lap time because we were really fast with those conditions. Tomorrow I expect a good race, especially with Dani, because he has a really good rhythm. Jorge also will be there on the beginning, but I’m more worried for Dani, because he is really fast. So we will try to be there with him and fight until the end if it’s dry. If it’s wet, we will see.”
The Malaysian Grand Prix will start at 4:00am Eastern and will be broadcast live on Fox Sports 1.
SHELL ADVANCE MALAYSIAN MOTORCYCLE GP QUALIFYING – Oct. 25, 2014
1 93 Marc MARQUEZ SPA Repsol Honda Team Honda 327.4 1’59.791
2 26 Dani PEDROSA SPA Repsol Honda Team Honda 329.1 1’59.973 0.182 / 0.182
3 99 Jorge LORENZO SPA Movistar Yamaha MotoGP Yamaha 324.8 2’00.203 0.412 / 0.230
4 6 Stefan BRADL GER LCR Honda MotoGP Honda 327.6 2’00.472 0.681 / 0.269
5 4 Andrea DOVIZIOSO ITA Ducati Team Ducati 327.3 2’00.703 0.912 / 0.231
6 46 Valentino ROSSI ITA Movistar Yamaha MotoGP Yamaha 322.0 2’00.740 0.949 / 0.037
7 41 Aleix ESPARGARO SPA NGM Forward Racing Forward Yamaha 315.1 2’00.801 1.010 / 0.061
8 35 Cal CRUTCHLOW GBR Ducati Team Ducati 325.6 2’01.119 1.328 / 0.318
9 38 Bradley SMITH GBR Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Yamaha 325.4 2’01.263 1.472 / 0.144
10 19 Alvaro BAUTISTA SPA GO&FUN Honda Gresini Honda 322.5 2’02.294 2.503 / 1.031
11 7 Hiroshi AOYAMA JPN Drive M7 Aspar Honda 313.4 2’10.568 10.777 / 8.274
12 44 Pol ESPARGARO SPA Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Yamaha
13 68 Yonny HERNANDEZ COL Energy T.I. Pramac Racing Ducati 324.2 2’02.184 0.366 / 0.164
14 69 Nicky HAYDEN USA Drive M7 Aspar Honda 312.8 2’02.330 0.512 / 0.146
15 17 Karel ABRAHAM CZE Cardion AB Motoracing Honda 314.0 2’02.548 0.730 / 0.218
16 8 Hector BARBERA SPA Avintia Racing Ducati 320.5 2’02.682 0.864 / 0.134
17 45 Scott REDDING GBR GO&FUN Honda Gresini Honda 310.5 2’02.874 1.056 / 0.192
18 15 Alex DE ANGELIS RSM NGM Forward Racing Forward Yamaha 316.2 2’03.165 1.347 / 0.291
19 9 Danilo PETRUCCI ITA Octo IodaRacing Team ART 307.7 2’03.874 2.056 / 0.709
20 70 Michael LAVERTY GBR Paul Bird Motorsport PBM 310.7 2’04.539 2.721 / 0.665
21 63 Mike DI MEGLIO FRA Avintia Racing Avintia 306.4 2’04.784 2.966 / 0.245
22 23 Broc PARKES AUS Paul Bird Motorsport PBM 304.8 2’05.208 3.390 / 0.424
