Marc Marquez stormed to pole position for the British Grand Prix after setting the first-ever lap of Silverstone underneath two minutes.
The Spaniard wasted no time at the beginning of Q2, immediately setting a new lap record with a 2m00.106s, which put him over three tenths clear of second-placed Maverick Vinales.
On his second flying lap, Marquez once again set the timing screens ablaze, though this time Valentino Rossi and Cal Crutchlow had also upped their pace.
However, both Rossi and last year’s Silverstone pole man Crutchlow lost a lot of time in the final sector, while Marquez hooked up the lap to set a 1m59.941s to claim his sixth pole of 2017.
Rossi was just 0.084 seconds outside of the Honda rider at the chequered flag, with Crutchlow a further 0.081s behind to complete the front row for the first time since the Spanish Grand Prix.
Vinales was cast four tenths adrift of the pole time in the end in fourth, while Jorge Lorenzo brushed off a technical issue in fourth practice just prior to qualifying to outpace team-mate Andrea Dovizioso to fifth.
Q1 pacesetter Dani Pedrosa will start from seventh from Tech3 rider Johann Zarco and Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaro. Jonas Folger completes the top 10.
Pol Espargaro made his third Q2 appearance of the season on the KTM, but could not make the most of the opportunity after crashing at Brooklands with three minutes of the session left.
The Spaniard’s 2m01.378s was still good enough to beat Pramac Ducati’s Scott Redding to 11th fastest.
Alex Rins came close to graduating into the second part of qualifying, but the Suzuki rider just missed out by a tenth of a second to Folger.
Alvaro Bautista will start his 250th grand prix from 14th on the grid, with the second Suzuki of Andrea Iannone alongside him.
Hector Barbera heads Jack Miller on the sixth row, with Danilo Petrucci lining up in 18th after an early fall at Farm Curve.
Bradley Smith, Karel Abraham, Loris Baz, Tito Rabat and Sam Lowes complete the 23-rider grid.
Comments.
Loading comments…