Photography by Gold & Goose
Marc Marquez added another highlight to his already fabled career by blistering the track record at the iconic Silverstone Circuit. Marquez pushed his Repsol Honda MotoGP machine to a time of 2:00.234 to shatter his own two-year-old track record and earn the pole for Sunday’s British Motorcycle Grand Prix.
The pole is Marquez’ sixth of this season and 28th-career MotoGP pole.
Marquez will be joined on the front row by MoviStar Yamaha’s Jorge Lorenzo, the current world championship leader. Second Honda factory rider Dani Pedrosa rounds out the front row.
The top four riders made it into the two-minute flat bracket.
The second row will be made up of Valentino Rossi, Pol Espargaro and British fan favorite Bradley Smith.
American Nicky Hayden qualified 21st.
In the opening half of the session it was the Honda pair of Marquez and Pedrosa leading the way, with Marquez breaking his own Silverstone pole record of two years ago (2.00.691) with a 2:00.564.
The 3.6-mile circuit was too long for the three-run strategy some teams have tried in Q2 this season, so riders would only have two sessions within Q2 to make their time.
So confident looking was Marquez, the question was could he push his Honda to a sub-two-minute lap time? In the second session he tripped all the timing beacons faster than his first session and anticipation was high that perhaps it could happen, but that milestone will have to wait – Marquez ultimately went faster than his first session, but his pole time was 2:00.234.
On the final lap the best Lorenzo could do on the Yamaha was to split the speedy Honda pair. Lorenzo nailed down the second starting spot with Pedrosa rounding out the front row.
Marquez spoke of his new Silverstone track record.
“Of course in the qualifying practice always you try to push on the limit and try to do your 100 percent,” Marquez said. “My feeling with the bike was really good and I did a good rhythm, so the target was the pole position or try to finish on the front row. When I see the first lap time with the first tire I say, ‘OK, we will not arrive at 59 (second), but we’ll be close.’ In the end with the second tire I pushed a little bit more. This pole position is important and tomorrow the race will be a tough battle between Jorge and then we will see with Dani and Valentino how is everything.”
The race begins at 8:00 am Eastern and is televised live nationally on Fox Sports 1.
MotoGP qualifying for the British Grand Prix at Silverstone, Aug. 29, 2015
1 93 Marc MARQUEZ SPA Repsol Honda Team Honda 322.0 2’00.234
2 99 Jorge LORENZO SPA Movistar Yamaha MotoGP Yamaha 319.0 2’00.522 0.288 / 0.288
3 26 Dani PEDROSA SPA Repsol Honda Team Honda 326.6 2’00.716 0.482 / 0.194
4 46 Valentino ROSSI ITA Movistar Yamaha MotoGP Yamaha 323.2 2’00.947 0.713 / 0.231
5 44 Pol ESPARGARO SPA Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Yamaha 324.4 2’01.031 0.797 / 0.084
6 38 Bradley SMITH GBR Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Yamaha 319.6 2’01.140 0.906 / 0.109
7 45 Scott REDDING GBR EG 0,0 Marc VDS Honda 320.1 2’01.329 1.095 / 0.189
8 35 Cal CRUTCHLOW GBR LCR Honda Honda 323.3 2’01.376 1.142 / 0.047
9 29 Andrea IANNONE ITA Ducati Team Ducati 329.9 2’01.874 1.640 / 0.498
10 41 Aleix ESPARGARO SPA Team SUZUKI ECSTAR Suzuki 317.2 2’01.880 1.646 / 0.006
11 68 Yonny HERNANDEZ COL Octo Pramac Racing Ducati 322.8 2’01.894 1.660 / 0.014
12 4 Andrea DOVIZIOSO ITA Ducati Team Ducati 322.8 2’01.979 1.745 / 0.085
13 25 Maverick VIÑALES SPA Team SUZUKI ECSTAR Suzuki 313.9 2’02.016 0.128 / 0.006
14 6 Stefan BRADL GER Aprilia Racing Team Gresini Aprilia 316.0 2’02.657 0.769 / 0.641
15 76 Loris BAZ FRA Forward Racing Yamaha Forward 312.4 2’02.677 0.789 / 0.020
16 43 Jack MILLER AUS LCR Honda Honda 312.3 2’02.697 0.809 / 0.020 7
17 8 Hector BARBERA SPA Avintia Racing Ducati 320.0 2’02.784 0.896 / 0.087
18 9 Danilo PETRUCCI ITA Octo Pramac Racing Ducati 317.9 2’02.800 0.912 / 0.016
19 50 Eugene LAVERTY IRL Aspar MotoGP Team Honda 315.6 2’02.894 1.006 / 0.094
20 19 Alvaro BAUTISTA SPA Aprilia Racing Team Gresini Aprilia 315.1 2’02.908 1.020 / 0.014
21 69 Nicky HAYDEN USA Aspar MotoGP Team Honda 311.8 2’02.946 1.058 / 0.038
22 63 Mike DI MEGLIO FRA Avintia Racing Ducati 316.0 2’03.641 1.753 / 0.695
23 71 Claudio CORTI ITA Forward Racing Yamaha Forward 312.6 2’03.789 1.901 / 0.148
24 17 Karel ABRAHAM CZE AB Motoracing Honda 311.9 2’04.133 2.245 / 0.344
25 15 Alex DE ANGELIS RSM E-Motion IodaRacing Team ART 307.8 2’04.304
