Malaysian MotoGP qualifying: Marquez denies Rossi as heavens open up in Sepang

Jorge Lorenzo

In what proved to be a rainy encounter, Marc Marquez successfully denied Valentino Rossi a first MotoGP pole in three years at the Sepang circuit on Saturday as the Malaysian Grand Prix qualifying came to an engaging climax.

Marquez came in with the fastest time as Rossi was pushed to second at the end of Q2. Cal Crutchlow secured a third place ahead of Jorge Lorenzo as Dani Pedrosa completed the top five qualifiers. The preparations of the team were adversely affected as the heavens opened up at the end of the Q1 session. The rain didn’t last long and the circuit dried due to the sweating temperature in Malaysia but some drivers found the track treacherous after the eventual downpour with Lorenzo being the most notable. Lorenzo had to abandon his first run and to save at turn 7. Meanwhile, Lorenzo’s teammate Rossi gained a three second upper hand over the rest of the field in his first run.

Lorenzo kicked off his second run impressively after getting into the top spot before improving to a 2m00.578s at the end of the session. Honda’s Marquez and Pedrosa were on quicker laps themselves. However, it took Rossi and Crutchlow to demote Lorenzo. Rossi was sitting pretty in the driver seat to secure his 50^th grand prix pole but was dethroned by Marquez who came across a record 2m00.011s to secure a pole. Pedrosa’s lap ended shortly after Marquez came home and he had to settle for fifth despite setting the pace for every session leading up to qualifying.

Alvaro Bautista, Bradley smith, Andrea Dovizioso, Aleix Espargaro and Andrea Iannone completed the top ten while Stefan Bradl missed out the qualifying session after fracturing his right ankle in practice.

Pos  Rider             Team/Bike             Time       Gap
 1.  Marc Marquez      Honda                 2m00.011s
 2.  Valentino Rossi   Yamaha                2m00.336s  +0.325s
 3.  Cal Crutchlow     Tech 3 Yamaha         2m00.359s  +0.348s
 4.  Jorge Lorenzo     Yamaha                2m00.578s  +0.567s
 5.  Dani Pedrosa      Honda                 2m00.692s  +0.681s
 6.  Alvaro Bautista   Gresini Honda         2m00.974s  +0.963s
 7.  Bradley Smith     Tech 3 Yamaha         2m01.306s  +1.295s
 8.  Andrea Dovizioso  Ducati                2m01.635s  +1.624s
 9.  Aleix Espargaro   Aspar Aprilia         2m02.151s  +2.140s
10.  Andrea Iannone    Pramac Ducati         2m02.536s  +2.525s
11.  Nicky Hayden      Ducati                2m02.900s  +2.889s
12.  Stefan Bradl      LCR Honda             2m01.083s  +1.072s
13.  Colin Edwards     Forward FTR-Kawasaki  2m02.858s  +2.847s
14.  Claudio Corti     Forward FTR-Kawasaki  2m03.175s  +3.164s
15.  Hector Barbera    Avintia FTR-Kawasaki  2m03.212s  +3.201s
16.  Hiroshi Aoyama    Avintia FTR-Kawasaki  2m03.418s  +3.407s
17.  Yonny Hernandez   Pramac Ducati         2m03.651s  +3.640s
18.  Randy de Puniet   Aspar Aprilia         2m03.805s  +3.794s
19.  Michael Laverty   PBM Aprilia           2m04.198s  +4.187s
20.  Danilo Petrucci   Ioda-Suter-BMW        2m04.310s  +4.299s
21.  Luca Scassa       Cardion Aprilia       2m05.199s  +5.188s
22.  Bryan Staring     Gresini FTR-Honda     2m06.038s  +6.027s
23.  Lukas Pesek       Ioda-Suter-BMW        2m06.203s  +6.192s
24.  Damian Cudlin     PBM-Aprilia           2m06.273s  +6.262s