MotoGP: Marc Marquez Wins Catalunya Pole on Revised Circuit

Marc Marquez is honoring the memory of fallen racer Luis Salom is by wearing Salom’s initials and number on his helmet. Photo by Gold & Goose

On a somber day, following the passing of Moto2 rider Luis Salom on Friday, Repsol Honda’s Marc Marquez was the quickest to adapt to a new track configuration on Saturday and clock a time of 1:43.589, nearly a half-second faster than Yamaha’s Jorge Lorenzo, to win the pole for Sunday’s Catalunya MotoGP race. Marquez’ Honda teammate Dani Pedrosa will start third, earning his first front-row start of the season.

After consultation with the riders, officials decided to run a revised circuit, used in Formula One, which introduces a chicane before the high-speed final right hand turn, where the tragedy of the Salom crash occurred yesterday. This layout was tested two years ago in an official MotoGP test, but the configuration wasn’t elected for use in Motorcycle Grand Prix racing. As riders had to deal with a new section of track, practice time was extended with a new schedule for Saturday.

In Q2 It was on his first flying lap that Marquez established a new best time on the revised circuit with his 1:43.905. After the first half of the session the provisional front row was Marquez, Lorenzo and Pedrosa. Marquez would only better that time in the final run of the session with his 1:43.589. The young Spaniard was the only rider to dip into the 1:43 time bracket.

With 30 seconds remaining Hector Barbera put his Aventia Ducati into P2, but he was displaced in the closing seconds of the session, after strong final laps for Lorenzo and Pedrosa.

“Honestly I did a really good lap time and it is something that I did not expect,” said Marquez, who earned his 33^rd-career MotoGP pole and his first this season since the American round in Austin. “We’re feeling good. We changed quite a lot the setup from what we had before. We found something that we did not have before. I’m really happy to be on the pole position. I was there trying to do my best lap time and because I don’t know what will happen tomorrow I want to dedicate this to my grandmother and to Luis Salom.”

Lorenzo explained the Yamaha was at a disadvantage with the new track configuration.

“The F1 track for our bike is difficult,” Lorenzo said. “Strong braking, first-gear corners, we are struggling in the last sector. For the safety it will be better, so we have to be happy about that, but we are going to struggle a little bit more than yesterday.”

The race gets underway at 8:00 am Eastern here in the U.S. and will be shown live on BeIN Sports.

GRAN PREMI MONSTER ENERGY DE CATALUNYA MotoGP Qualifying Classification 2016