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Marquez continues his perfect run of 2014 and takes pole in Argentina

Repsol Honda rider blitzes his own lap record ahead of Lorenzo and Pedrosa

Marc Marquez, Repsol Honda Team

Marc Marquez, Repsol Honda Team

Repsol Media

Marc Marquez continues to re-write the MotoGP history books with the reigning World Champion soaring into pole position with another outright lap record at the Termas Di Rio Hondo circuit ahead of tomorrow’s GP Red Bull de la República Argentina. The Repsol Honda rider’s phenomenal talent was once again on show for all to see and a best time of 1m 37.683s was more than enough to take pole ahead of Movistar Yamaha rider Jorge Lorenzo with his best lap of 1m 38.425s taking second away from Dani Pedrosa on the second Repsol Honda machine.

Today I really felt good on the bike and I am happy to have taken pole position!

Marc Marquez

Aleix Espargaro once again impressed on the NGM Forward Racing machine with the Spaniard setting a best lap of 1m 38.794s to grab a fourth place start ahead of Ducati Team’s Andrea Dovizioso who will be happy with a best time of 1m 38.856s while Valentino Rossi took the final starting spot on the second row for on the second Movistar Yamaha’s with the seven times MotoGP World Champion setting a best lap time of 1m 38.949s. Starting from 7th will be Bradley Smith who was pushing very hard on the Monster Yamaha Tech 3 machine setting a best time of 1m 38.958 and .079s better than that of Andrea Iannone on the Pramac Racing machine.

Stefan Bradl had a heavy fall in Q2 but the LCR Honda rider’s best time of 1m 39.297s was good enough for a 9th place start while Alvaro Bautista will start from the front of the fourth row with the GO&Fun Honda Gresini rider’s best lap time of 1m 39.429s better than that of Pol Espargaro for the Monster Yamaha Tech 3 team with the Spaniard nursing an injured finger following a high speed crash in FP3 this morning. Nicky Hayden will start form 12th after setting a best time of 1m 40.541s for the Drive M7 Aspar team.

Jorge Lorenzo, Yamaha Factory Racing
Jorge Lorenzo, Yamaha Factory Racing

Photo by: Yamaha MotoGP

Scott Redding was unlucky not to progress to Q2 with the GO&Fun Honda Gresini rider setting a best lap time of 1m 40.238s giving him a starting position of 13th ahead of Colin Edwards for the NGM Forward Racing team with a 1m 40.476s laptime enough to see him starting ahead of Cardion AB Motoracing’s Karel Abraham. Hiroshi Aoyama starts from 16th position tomorrow with the Drive M7 Aspar rider setting a best lap of 1m 40.616s to start in front of Yonny Hernandez with the Energy TI Pramac Racing rider setting a best time of 1m 40.691s.

Broc Parkes set the 18th best time today for the Paul Bird Motorsport team with a 1m 40.981s enough to start ahead of Michele Pirro on the Ducati Team GP14 While Michael Laverty starts from 20th on the second of the Paul Bird Motorsport machines with a best lap of 1m 41.103s. Hector Barbera starts from 21st for the Avintia Racing team with a best time of 1m 41.129s with his teammate Mike Di Meglio starting alongside him and Danilo Petrucci starting from 23rd for the IodaRacing Project team with a best time of 1m 41.686s.

Marquez was delighted with taking pole and believes tire choice is the key to adding another win to his tally tomorrow. Speaking afterwards he said, “Today I really felt good on the bike and I am happy to have taken pole position! In the morning and in FP4, we worked a lot with the used tire and this afternoon we obviously focused on qualifying. I put in a very good lap and I think that tomorrow it will be interesting to see which tire will be required for the race, because there are various options for both the front and the rear - it is going to be a difficult choice! One of the keys for the race will be tire management, in order to try to get to the end with optimal grip - which will allow us to make the difference”

Dani Pedrosa, Repsol Honda Team
Dani Pedrosa, Repsol Honda Team

Photo by: Repsol Media

Lorenzo was really happy taking his first front row start of the year saying afterwards, “We are trying to solve every challenge we can to be as competitive as possible. Today we made a small modification before the qualifying practice that proved to be good. It was better entering the corner and also gave us more traction so I could be a bit faster. I pushed at the maximum with the soft tyre to make a fast lap time and was able to make it. We are trying our best to be as competitive as possible and take the maximum so we are satisfied with the result.”

Pedrosa wasn’t thrilled with his performance in qualifying but remains confident of a good result tomorrow saying, “Qualifying did not go perfectly. I wasn't as fast as I wanted to be and I know that I made a few mistakes - especially on the final corner - which hindered me a lot. However, I'm happy, because the important thing is that we had some good practice sessions. We are high up the grid for tomorrow, so we shall try to make the most of this and have a good race.”

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