Photography by Larry Lawrence
Things went incredibly smoothly for Repsol Honda’s Marc Marquez in qualifying for Sunday’s Red Bull Indianapolis Grand Prix. The defending world champion set his pole-winning time of 1:31.884 early in Saturday’s Q2 session and then watched as no one else could match his pace. Marquez was the only rider to get into the 1:31s. He will be joined on the front row by teammate Dani Pedrosa, making it a Honda one-two and Yamaha’s Jorge Lorenzo rounding out the front-row starters.
For Marquez it marked his fifth pole of the season, 27th-career MotoGP pole. It is also the third consecutive pole for the Spaniard at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Current series leader Valentino Rossi pitted early and had a new rear tire installed after running in a fresh front tire for a lap. Perhaps the biggest surprise was Rossi only able to manage eighth.
Marquez set the mark to beat with a 1:31.884 in the first session and it would prove to hold the rest of the session. The time was short of his lap record time of 1:31.619 set last year.
In the end Pedrosa was the one rider who looked to be pushing especially hard, but his best lap came up 0.171 seconds short of Marquez. Lorenzo had to pull out a fast lap late to get on the front row.
Cal Crutchlow matched his best qualifying result of the season – the Brit will head up the second row on the CWM LCR Honda. Joining him will be Pramac Danilo Petrucci and Bradley Smith with Monster Tech 3 Yamaha.
Racing on home ground did not provide a spark for American Nicky Hayden. He only managed to qualify 20th on his Aspar Honda.
Marquez seemed very confident after his pole.
“Of course tomorrow will be a tough race, but I feel ready to fight for the victory,” said Marquez, who is the defending race winner. “It will be difficult because tire degradation is important here. It is difficult to manage well the tire, but at the moment it looks like Jorge has a strong pace, Dani too, but at the moment I feel stronger it will be Jorge. We will see. We will try to manage well, but anyway Dani also will be really strong.”
The race starts tomorrow at 2:00pm eastern and can be watched live on Fox Sports 1.
MotoGP qualifying results for the Red Bull Indianapolis GP – Aug. 8, 2015
1. Marc Marquez ESP Repsol Honda Team (RC213V) 1m 31.884s [Lap 2/6] 344km/h (Top Speed)
2. Dani Pedrosa ESP Repsol Honda Team (RC213V) 1m 32.055s +0.171s [5/8] 342km/h
3. Jorge Lorenzo ESP Movistar Yamaha MotoGP (YZR-M1) 1m 32.186s +0.302s [8/8] 335km/h
4. Cal Crutchlow GBR CWM LCR Honda (RC213V) 1m 32.208s +0.324s [6/8] 340km/h
5. Danilo Petrucci ITA Octo Pramac Racing (Desmosedici GP14.1) 1m 32.243s +0.359s [5/6] 343km/h
6. Bradley Smith GBR Monster Yamaha Tech 3 (YZR-M1) 1m 32.269s +0.385s [7/9] 341km/h
7. Andrea Iannone ITA Ducati Team (Desmosedici GP15) 1m 32.468s +0.584s [7/7] 343km/h
8. Valentino Rossi ITA Movistar Yamaha MotoGP (YZR-M1) 1m 32.511s +0.627s [3/8] 337km/h
9. Maverick Viñales ESP Team Suzuki Ecstar (GSX-RR) 1m 32.571s +0.687s [5/7] 337km/h
10. Andrea Dovizioso ITA Ducati Team (Desmosedici GP15) 1m 32.636s +0.752s [7/8] 346km/h
11. Pol Espargaro ESP Monster Yamaha Tech 3 (YZR-M1) 1m 32.670s +0.786s [2/8] 340km/h
12. Aleix Espargaro ESP Team Suzuki Ecstar (GSX-RR) 1m 32.814s +0.930s [5/6] 331km/h
13. Scott Redding GBR Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS (RC213V) 1m 33.170s 341km/h
14. Hector Barbera ESP Avintia Racing (Desmosedici GP14 Open) 1m 33.199s 340km/h
15. Yonny Hernandez COL Octo Pramac Racing (Desmosedici GP14.2) 1m 33.278s 342km/h
16. Jack Miller AUS CWM LCR Honda (RC213V-RS) 1m 33.381s 339km/h
17. Stefan Bradl GER Factory Aprilia Gresini (RS-GP) 1m 33.822s 335km/h
18. Alvaro Bautista ESP Factory Aprilia Gresini (RS-GP) 1m 33.839s 336km/h
19. Eugene Laverty IRL Aspar MotoGP Team (RC213V-RS) 1m 33.978s 334km/h
20. Nicky Hayden USA Aspar MotoGP Team (RC213V-RS) 1m 34.030s 331km/h
21. Alex De Angelis RSM E-Motion IodaRacing (ART) 1m 34.226s 328km/h
22. Mike Di Meglio FRA Avintia Racing (Desmosedici GP14 Open) 1m 34.322s 334km/h
23. Toni Elias SPA AB Motoracing (RC213V-RS) 1m 35.167s 333km/h
