Marc Marquez Survives Hard Crash to Earn Argentina MotoGP Pole

Photo by Gold & Goose

Saturday held just about everything in qualifying for the MotoGP in Argentina. Exploding rear tires, numerous crashes and late front-row qualifying drama. In the end it was Repsol Honda’s Marc Marquez, in spite of a late-session crash, coming through to earn the pole position for Sunday’s MotoGP at the Autódromo Termas de Río Hondo in Santiago del Estero with a 1:39.411. The Yamaha’s of Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo will start in second and third respectively.

Marquez was quick to put the Honda atop the charts with a 1:39.411, the best lap of the weekend, in the first half of Q2. The time was still off the track record of 1:37.683, set in 2014.

Cal Crutchlow crashed in turn one, the corner that was catching so many riders out. He ran back to his pits to get on his backup machine.

Rossi then became the second rider to get into the 1:39s on the weekend when he pushed his Yamaha into that bracket with seven minutes to go in Q2.

With about four minutes to go Bradley Smith was another victim of turn one, crashing and ending his qualifying session. With a minute to go Marquez also fell in turn one with the front end tucked on his Honda. He looked to have the breath knocked out of him with the impact, but after waiting a for a while on the ground, he was able to walk away under his own power and waved to fans during his ride back to the pits.

Marquez’ earlier time would hold for the pole. The Spaniard talked about his crash after the session.

“I’m glad I’m OK because this crash was a big one,” Marquez said. “But OK, about the race, I think we are working really good, I feel really good with the bike. I did a mistake in the first corner, I lose the front because I push just a little bit more. But for the race it’s nice to have this feeling with the bike. The key will be to choose a good rear tire. With the soft one I feel really good and really constant, but I don’t know if we’ll be able to use. We have to wait for the decision from Michelin. I’ll try to do the best race as possible.”

Right at the end Lorenzo went to P2, but seconds later his Yamaha teammate Rossi grabbed back the position, pushing Lorenzo to third.

Rossi celebrated his second-place qualifying by doing a knack-knack wheelie, much to the delight of the adoring crowd.

The FP4 session was red flagged after the rear tire on Scott Redding’s Octo Pramac Yakhnich Ducati appeared to exploded. Redding managed to keep his machine on two wheels, but race officials huddled to try to determine the issue with Redding’s tire.

There are just two rear tire compounds available to the teams in Argentina and there is some question whether Michelin will allow the softer of the two to be used in the race tomorrow, due to the high abrasion of the circuit.

Gran Premio Motul De La República Argentina Motogp Qualifying, April 2, 2016