Marc Marquez on the Pole at Le Mans

Photography by Gold & Goose

Repsol Honda’s Marc Marquez was in control Saturday during qualifying for the Monster Energy Grand Prix of France. The Spaniard pushed his factory Honda RC213V to a time of 1:32.246 around the 2.65-mile Bugatti Circuit at Le Mans to earn the pole.

It was Marquez’ third pole of the season and 25^th MotoGP pole of his career.

Joining Marquez on the front are Ducati’s Andrea Dovizioso and Yamaha’s Jorge Lorenzo, making it three different manufacturers occupying the front row for Sunday’s fifth MotoGP round of 2015.

“In qualifying practice you always push 100 percent,” Marquez said. “This weekend we worked in a different way this time and concentrated more on the race, but it looks like in this qualifying session we put the best and it looks like it is working good, not perfect, but I think I have a good pace. Anyway tomorrow will be a tough race because especially Jorge has a really good rhythm. We will try to be there with him, but I know it will be difficult.”

Riders took to the track under threatening skies at the historic Le Mans. Marquez got the Q2 kicked off by ending the first half of the session atop the charts with a 1:32.983, with Iannone and Lorenzo following. The target to shoot for from last year was Marquez’ 1:32.042, but conditions ultimately weren’t conducive to match that time.

With two minutes to go Bradley Smith put himself provisionally on the front row third with a 1:33.332, but that would not hold. In the typical last-lap flurry it was Marquez bettering his time, getting down to a 1:32.246. Dovi and Lorenzo rounded out the front row.

Ducati, coming off a test session in Mugello, should be pleased with the results of Dovizioso second on the grid.

“We have a really good pace for the race,” Dovizioso explained. “We worked very well through the weekend; from the beginning the bike was very good. I’m not so happy about the lap time in qualifying, I wasn’t smooth on the bike, I didn’t get a really good lap time with the bike I have. But anyway first row is very important and we are there to fight for a podium.”

Lorenzo, coming off victory in Jerez and being fast all weekend, was also not pleased with the mistakes he made in qualifying.

“The thing is I did not make any good lap,” Lorenzo said of the qualifying session. “I was a pity it rained because the track was dry, but I didn’t trust completely. So the first tire I just tried to make some laps and not push so much. In the second one when I was very, very fast in the last lap, I make a mistake in the chicane. I braked too hard and I went wide and I lose a half a second. That avoid us to stay close to pole position or maybe get it. One of the worst qualifying of my life, but even like that we are on the first row, so that means our package is very good. The important thing is tomorrow and the race, so I think we have good confidence, good feeling and a good pace.”

It was a good qualifying day for American Nicky Hayden. He was the top open class bike and challenged, but came up just short of transferring from Q1 to Q2. He still managed to qualify 14^th overall on his Aspar Honda, his best result of the season.