Marc Marquez battled through tricky conditions to claim a sensational fourth straight pole position at Termas de Rio Hondo by over seven tenths of a second.
The Spanish rider has been the benchmark at the Argentinian venue since 2014, though remained largely in the shadow of Yamaha’s Maverick Vinales throughout practice and came into qualifying three tenths down in third on the combined times.
A shower just before FP4 saturated the track, and this turned the tide in favour of Marquez as he gelled instantly with the conditions. That feeling disappeared by the time QP2 came around, however, with the drying track not best suited to his riding style.
“Today on the full wets in FP4, I was really comfortable,” he explained.
“It was a little bit slippery, but the feeling was very good. In the qualifying, conditions were different and not the best for my riding style as it was half wet and half dry.”
Marquez, despite flirting with the idea of a switch to slicks, persevered in the conditions and dominated the 15-minute session, taking his 66th career pole with a lap of 1m47.512s right at the death.
Tomorrow’s 25-lap race is predicted to be dry, and this has Marquez remaining cautious over his chances. Throughout practice, all RC213V-mounted riders have struggled with a lack of grip in the dry. Nonetheless, Marquez still has his sights set on reaching the podium.
“We managed and tried to do a great lap, and ultimately we got pole,”the Spaniard added.
“I even thought about fitting slicks but, speaking with Santi (Hernandez, Marquez’s crew chief), we decided not to do it.
“We did a good job with the team and I’m very happy to start from the front row tomorrow. They say it will be dry, so the race is another story, but we’ll try to find a way to fight for the podium.”
Team-mate Dani Pedrosa came through the first part of qualifying to put his Honda in the middle of the second row in fifth spot, half a second off the pace.
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