Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda RC213V) stormed to pole position at Le Mans this afternoon, the World Championship leader beating off a challenge from reigning World Champion Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha) by three hundredths of a second. Stefan Bradl (LCR Honda RC213V) and Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda RC213V) will both start tomorrow’s French Grand Prix from the second row of the grid after qualifying fifth and sixth fastest.

Remarkable rookie Marquez started practice yesterday morning having never ridden a lap of the legendary French track aboard a MotoGP bike, and yet by the end of the day he was second fastest, 0.134 seconds behind team-mate Pedrosa. The reigning Moto2 World Champion commented that Le Mans is a small and tight track, and that it feels a lot smaller and tighter on a MotoGP bike than a Moto2 machine! In the final pre-qualifying practice session Marquez slid off at Turn Two – the first left-hander that claimed five riders today – but that hardly affected his confidence at all.

This is the 20-year-old Spaniard’s second premier-class pole, following his pole position at last month’s Grand Prix of the Americas, which made him the youngest premier-class pole sitter in GP history. He backed that up with victory the next day, making him the youngest premier-class race winner.

Bradl’s determined push to fifth, which puts him in the middle of the second row between Cal Crutchlow (Yamaha) and Pedrosa, was some reward for all the hard work he’s put in with his team to solve a front-end issue that had hampered him at the last two races. The German ended the day less than a tenth of a second off his first MotoGP front row.

Pedrosa was confident of fighting for pole position after ending the first three practice sessions second fastest, behind Marquez. But a tumble at Turn Two interrupted his efforts during the 15-minute QP2 qualifying session. The former 125 and 250 World Champion got back to the pits, took his second bike and managed to better his time, but he had to be happy with sixth on the grid, just five thousandths of a second behind Bradl.

Alvaro Bautista (Team GO&FUN Honda Gresini RC213V) was another who fell at the first left, sliding off there during FP3. He recovered to go seventh fastest in qualifying, which puts him at the top of the third row of the grid. The first three rows are tightly packed, with the top nine riders covered by just 1.035 seconds.

Bryan Staring (GO&FUN Honda Gresini FTR Honda) will start from 21st on the grid. The Australian rookie – who has never ridden at Le Mans before – was happy with his progress and with his race pace.



Marc Marquez, Repsol Honda: pole position, 1m 33.187s

“Qualifying went very well. After FP3, in which we had a small front-end crash and I lost my confidence a little, I was back on it immediately. It was hard to heat up the tyres, but that was the same for everyone. I think that's the reason why there were so many crashes. I am very happy, because I think that we had a good session and have a good peace. Tomorrow we will try to give 100 per cent and see if we are fortunate enough to have a dry race. If it is a wet one, then we just have to do as well as we can.”

Stefan Bradl, LCR Honda: 5th, 1m 33.634s

“Finally we’ve done a good job in qualifying, as the gap from the third to the sixth in the classification is very narrow. It's nice to be back after the difficult weekend in Jerez and I knew I was fast enough to get fifth place, which is our usual position. I want to thank the team for their efforts because they’ve done a good job adjusting the front end, working on suspension, electronics and mapping. Now I can ride the bike with confidence no matter what the weather will be tomorrow and I am confident we can race at the front.”

Dani Pedrosa, Repsol Honda: 6th, 1m 33.639s

“The afternoon practice sessions were difficult. I crashed in qualifying, so I had to go back to the garage and only had a little time left on the clock when I got back out on track. I was not able to make the best use of the session, but at least I was able to clock a fairly decent time and place sixth. It is a pity, because we could have been much higher up the grid. For tomorrow we will have to try to get a good start, get back up through the field and have a good race.”

Alvaro Bautista, Team GO&FUN Honda Gresini: 7th, 1m 33.984s

“Today was a difficult day, especially this morning because we tried some things with the set-up to resolve the issues we had yesterday but they didn't work. We made some progress with the electronics and then went back a step with the set-up but at the end of the morning session I had a crash on cold tyres that was quite heavy. Thankfully I wasn't really hurt apart from a blow to my chest, which was painful this afternoon. I couldn't ride at 100 per cent for qualifying but I felt more confident with the front so I am looking forward to riding it tomorrow. We have another thing to try in the warm-up with the electronics and then we will see what the weather does for the race.”

Bryan Staring, GO&FUN Honda Gresini FTR Honda: 21st, 1m 36.714s

“I am halfway happy because I feel I could have done better but we have still closed the gap to the guys in front of us. Our race pace is important and it makes me confident for the race. Obviously our biggest problem is that the tracks are always new to me and it has taken me some time to learn the right line around here. Taking everything into account I think we can have a good race tomorrow.”

Qualifying position

1 Marc Marquez 1'33.187 ESP HONDA Repsol Honda Team
2 Jorge Lorenzo 1'33.217 SPA YAMAHA Yamaha Factory Racing
3 Andrea Dovizioso 1'33.603 ITA DUCATI Ducati Team
4 Cal Crutchlow 1'33.609 GBR YAMAHA Monster Yamaha Tech 3
5 Stefan Bradl 1'33.634 GER HONDA LCR Honda MotoGP
6 Dani Pedrosa 1'33.639 SPA HONDA Repsol Honda Team
7 Alvaro Bautista 1'33.984 SPA HONDA Go & Fun Honda Gresini
8 Valentino Rossi 1'34.009 ITA YAMAHA Yamaha Factory Racing
9 Bradley Smith 1'34.222 GBR YAMAHA Monster Yamaha Tech 3
10 Nicky Hayden 1'34.242 USA DUCATI Ducati Team
11 Aleix Espargaro 1'34.754 ESP ART Power Electronics Aspar
12 Randy De Puniet 1'35.086 FRA ART Power Electronics Aspar
13 Andrea Iannone 1'35.062 ITA DUCATI Ignite Pramac Racing
14 Michele Pirro 1'35.228 ITA DUCATI Ignite Pramac Racing
15 Hector Barbera 1'35.714 SPA FTR Avintia Blusens
16 Danilo Petrucci 1'35.770 ITA IODA Came IodaRacing Project
17 Colin Edwards 1'36.221 USA FTR NGM Forward Racing
18 Karel Abraham 1'36.271 CZE ART Cardion AB Motoracing
19 Claudio Corti 1'36.330 ITA FTR NGM Forward Racing
20 Michael Laverty 1'36.596 WAL ART Paul Bird Motorsport
21 Bryan Staring 1'36.714 AUS HONDA Go & Fun Honda Gresini
22 Lukas Pesek 1'36.768 CZE IODA Came IodaRacing Project
23 Yonny Hernandez 1'36.961 COL ART Paul Bird Motorsport
24 Hiroshi Aoyama 1'37.523 JPN FTR Avintia Blusens

Championship standings

1 Marc Marquez 61 pts ESP HONDA Repsol Honda Team
2 Dani Pedrosa 58 pts SPA HONDA Repsol Honda Team
3 Jorge Lorenzo 57 pts SPA YAMAHA Yamaha Factory Racing
4 Valentino Rossi 43 pts ITA YAMAHA Yamaha Factory Racing
5 Cal Crutchlow 35 pts GBR YAMAHA Monster Yamaha Tech 3
6 Alvaro Bautista 28 pts SPA HONDA Go & Fun Honda Gresini
7 Andrea Dovizioso 26 pts ITA DUCATI Ducati Team
8 Nicky Hayden 24 pts USA DUCATI Ducati Team
9 Aleix Espargaro 17 pts ESP ART Power Electronics Aspar
10 Andrea Iannone 13 pts ITA DUCATI Ignite Pramac Racing
11 Stefan Bradl 11 pts GER HONDA LCR Honda MotoGP
12 Bradley Smith 10 pts GBR YAMAHA Monster Yamaha Tech 3
13 Ben Spies 9 pts USA DUCATI Ignite Pramac Racing
14 Hector Barbera 7 pts SPA FTR Avintia Blusens
15 Randy De Puniet 6 pts FRA ART Power Electronics Aspar
16 Michele Pirro 5 pts ITA DUCATI Ignite Pramac Racing
17 Yonny Hernandez 3 pts COL ART Paul Bird Motorsport
18 Michael Laverty 3 pts WAL ART Paul Bird Motorsport
19 Danilo Petrucci 2 pts ITA IODA Came IodaRacing Project
20 Hiroshi Aoyama 1 pts JPN FTR Avintia Blusens
21 Colin Edwards 1 pts USA FTR NGM Forward Racing
22 Lukas Pesek 0 pts CZE IODA Came IodaRacing Project
23 Karel Abraham 0 pts CZE ART Cardion AB Motoracing
24 Claudio Corti 0 pts ITA FTR NGM Forward Racing
25 Bryan Staring 0 pts AUS HONDA Go & Fun Honda Gresini
26 Blake Young 0 pts USA APRILIA Attack Performance

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