Defending World Champion Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda RC213V) waited until the dying moments of qualifying to post his fourth pole position in succession, preserving a perfect 2014 record in emphatic style, with an advantage of almost half a second with the fastest-ever lap of the iconic Spanish circuit.

Repsol Honda RC213V team-mate Dani Pedrosa gained his third front-row start in four races, qualifying third at a track where he has never finished off the podium in the MotoGP class. The factory-backed pair are sandwiching fellow Spaniard Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha), who qualified second.

Bright sunshine, a cloudless sky and grandstands packed full of eager fans greeted the return of MotoGP to Europe after three flyaway rounds. Marquez has won all three from pole position, as he underlines his status as the youngest-ever World Champion in the premier class.

His home-nation GP is at one of only a few circuits where the former 125cc and Moto2 World Champion has not yet recorded a GP win in any class, and he predicted a tough fight as he strives to add it to his growing portfolio. Marquez currently leads the points table with a perfect 75 points after three very different races: a tough fight with Valentino Rossi (Yamaha) in Qatar, a runaway win in Texas, and a patient tactical defeat of Lorenzo in Argentina.

Pedrosa is second, with a score of 56 after a full house of podiums. He was third in Qatar, and added two second places at the last two rounds – that in Argentina achieved with a stirring hunt-and-pounce attack on Lorenzo.

The 4.806-km Jerez de la Frontera circuit is the traditional start of the European season, and is a happy stamping ground for Honda, with 18 premier-class race wins in 26 years of racing outside the sherry capital, two of them claimed by Pedrosa, in 2008 and 2013.

Marquez apart, qualifying times were very close. Pedrosa was less than a tenth of a second off Lorenzo, and two tenths ahead of his rival’s team-mate Rossi, in fourth.

Honda satellite team riders were well-placed in the close top ten.

Stefan Bradl (LCR Honda RC213V) was seventh, leading row three. The only German rider in the premier class missed row two by a slender margin of two hundredths of a second. A fourth and a fifth place have put him sixth overall, after he crashed out of the first round while leading.

Alvaro Bautista (GO&FUN Honda Gresini Honda RC213V) was tenth, fighting his way through to the “senior” Q2 session from Q1, after searching for the right set-up for the sinuous circuit. Still awaiting his first finish this year, Bautista and team-mate Scott Redding have a special role, the only riders race-testing Showa suspension and Nissin brakes, made by Japanese companies with strong links to Honda.

Honda has four riders in the new-this-year Open category, riding the works-replica RCV1000R customer machine. For a second race 2006 Honda World Champion Nicky Hayden (Drive M7 Aspar Honda RCV1000R) was the best of them, again winning through to Q2 to place 12th.

His Drive M7 Aspar Honda team-mate Hiro Aoyama was 13th, heading row four in his best grid position since his return to Honda this year. The former 250cc World Champion narrowly beat Hayden last week in Argentina to claim tenth place.

Karel Abraham (Cardion AB Motoracing Honda RCV1000R) qualified 16th, gaining strength as he recovers from major shoulder surgery. GO&FUN Honda Gresini RCV1000R rider Redding qualified 18th after a minor spill in Q1. Redding is a class rookie, after finishing second in the Moto2 World Championship last year.

Tomorrow’s race is the fourth of 18 rounds, with the next race in two weeks at Le Mans in France.


Marc Marquez, Repsol Honda: 1st, 1m 38.120s

“I am very happy with this pole position, as it was hard fought and I wasn’t expecting it. We are suffering a little more here than at other tracks, but despite this we are still at the same level as Lorenzo and Dani [Pedrosa]. We changed our strategy at the last minute; I asked Santi [Hernandez] if it would be possible to use three soft tyres, and he said that it was. It was all last minute and I am satisfied with how it worked out, but we know that tomorrow is the important day. Jorge and, above all, Dani have a great pace.”

Dani Pedrosa, Repsol Honda: 3rd. 1m 38.630s

“We took a step forward with the bike setup today and also went better with the race tyres. In the qualifying session we tried to do as well as possible, but it is always difficult to put in a really fast lap. Tomorrow we will try to get a good start, then have a good race.”

Stefan Bradl, LCR Honda MotoGP: 7th, 1m 39.243s

“I tried to do my maximum in qualifying, because the target was to be on the second row, and we missed it by only 0.021 seconds. So we can be happy because we did a good job on a race track that has been always very tough for me on a MotoGP bike. We improved a lot compared to the last two years and we have the possibility to end the race in the top five. This would be good for me and the team and for the ranking. Tomorrow’s common problem will be the tyre wear because of the hot temperatures but we have found a good pace on used tyres”.

Alvaro Bautista, GO&FUN Honda Gresini: 10th, 1m 39.751s

“Unfortunately the situation has not changed compared to yesterday: we tried several different settings, without finding a solution. I have no front grip into the corner, then when I open the throttle the rear wheel starts immediately to spin and therefore I lose a lot of time. Too bad, I was hoping for a better weekend, but this is the reality at the moment. Tomorrow will be a very tough race, especially for me, that I am not comfortable on the bike; our goal, however, doesn’t change: we want to cross the finish line and collect some points. Perhaps tomorrow morning, during the warm up, we could try a last set-up modification, in an effort to improve, although actually all the work carried out so far have not had any effect. Unfortunately we can’t go beyond a certain limit”.

Nicky Hayden, Drive M7 Aspar Honda: 12th, 1m 39.826s

“We managed to make a couple of improvements today that made the bike more balanced and more fun to ride. The track conditions change a lot from the morning to afternoon and you have to really pay attention so that you don’t get caught out. The team did a great job and we managed to get into Q2, which was our objective, but I am not completely happy with the performance of the front tyre. We tried the harder compound yesterday and I destroyed my leathers saving front-end crashes but the soft version is too soft for us. That limits our options so we had to be conservative in Q2. I was hoping to be closer to the factory prototypes here and to qualify further up but with the tyre situation we had to be too cautious in the second session. Anyway, in general I am happy, the bike is responding well and I think we are ready for the race.”

Hiroshi Aoyama, Drive M7 Aspar Honda: 13th, 1m 39.768s

“We worked hard this morning to confirm the set-up and I felt comfortable with the lower temperatures. Like yesterday the heat went up in the afternoon and the behaviour of the bike changed as a result so we made some changes to adapt. We put some fresh tyres in at the end and I pushed hard for a lap time to get myself into Q2 and even though I didn’t manage it we have improved the lap time from yesterday so we can be satisfied because we are on the right path. We are getting faster every day, the bike is reliable and I feel more comfortable every time I ride it so we are seeing the results of our hard work. From yesterday to today we have improved the stability under braking and now we need to find some more corner speed. It has been a tough day with a lot of work to get through but our performance in qualifying was positive so I am happy.”

Karel Abraham, Cardion AB Motoracing Honda: 16th, 1m 40.126s

“I think I can be happy, but what I regret is that I didn´t make a totally perfect lap. In every lap I made some small mistake, which costs me thousandths. It’s a shame, because I lost only eight thousandths to 15th Andrea Iannone. But that’s normal at Jerez: the circuit is relatively short and everybody knows it perfectly. I´m quite surprised by how the tyres worked today in the heat. Even if it´s still not perfect, we improved the feeling a lot from Friday.”

Scott Redding, GO&FUN Honda Gresini: 18th, 1m 40.453s

“There is still much work to do if we want to find more grip: I have no traction and I struggled a lot today, so tonight we will analyse all the data with the team in an attempt to improve. I also had a small crash in qualifying: I was under braking, and as soon as I released the brakes I lost the front. The bike was more or less okay and I managed to bring it back to the pits, then I set my best lap time, but we have to work hard if we want to catch the group of riders in front of us. Since the beginning of the weekend unfortunately the situation has remained the same, with the exception of the braking, which is improved; at the rear, however, there is too much spinning at the moment”

Qualifying position

1 Marc Marquez 1'38.120 ESP HONDA Repsol Honda Team
2 Jorge Lorenzo 1'38.541 ESP YAMAHA Yamaha Factory Racing
3 Dani Pedrosa 1'38.630 ESP HONDA Repsol Honda Team
4 Valentino Rossi 1'38.857 ITA YAMAHA Yamaha Factory Racing
5 Aleix Espargaro 1'39.007 ESP FORWARD YAMAHA NGM Forward Racing
6 Andrea Dovizioso 1'39.222 ITA DUCATI Ducati Team
7 Stefan Bradl 1'39.243 GER HONDA LCR Honda MotoGP
8 Pol Espargaro 1'39.293 ESP YAMAHA Monster Yamaha Tech 3
9 Bradley Smith 1'39.390 GBR YAMAHA Monster Yamaha Tech 3
10 Alvaro Bautista 1'39.751 ESP HONDA GO&FUN Honda Gresini
11 Colin Edwards 1'39.814 USA FORWARD YAMAHA NGM Forward Racing
12 Nicky Hayden 1'39.826 USA HONDA Drive M7 Aspar
13 Hiroshi Aoyama 1'39.768 JPN HONDA Drive M7 Aspar
14 Cal Crutchlow 1'39.849 GBR DUCATI Ducati Team
15 Andrea Iannone 1'40.118 ITA DUCATI Pramac Racing
16 Karel Abraham 1'40.126 CZE HONDA Cardion AB Motoracing
17 Michele Pirro 1'40.239 ITA DUCATI Ducati Team
18 Scott Redding 1'40.453 GBR HONDA GO&FUN Honda Gresini
19 Yonny Hernandez 1'40.566 COL DUCATI Pramac Racing
20 Danilo Petrucci 1'41.009 ITA ART IodaRacing Project
21 Michael Laverty 1'41.124 WAL PBM Paul Bird Motorsport
22 Mike De Meglio 1'41.517 FRA AVINTIA Avintia Racing
23 Broc Parkes 1'41.702 AUS PBM Paul Bird Motorsport
24 Hector Barbera 1'42.052 ESP AVINTIA Avintia Racing

Championship standings

1 Marc Marquez 75 pts ESP HONDA Repsol Honda Team
2 Dani Pedrosa 56 pts ESP HONDA Repsol Honda Team
3 Valentino Rossi 41 pts ITA YAMAHA Yamaha Factory Racing
4 Andrea Dovizioso 34 pts ITA DUCATI Ducati Team
5 Andrea Iannone 25 pts ITA DUCATI Pramac Racing
6 Stefan Bradl 24 pts GER HONDA LCR Honda MotoGP
7 Jorge Lorenzo 22 pts ESP YAMAHA Yamaha Factory Racing
8 Aleix Espargaro 21 pts ESP FORWARD YAMAHA NGM Forward Racing
9 Bradley Smith 20 pts GBR YAMAHA Monster Yamaha Tech 3
10 Pol Espargaro 18 pts ESP YAMAHA Monster Yamaha Tech 3
11 Nicky Hayden 18 pts USA HONDA Drive M7 Aspar
12 Hiroshi Aoyama 15 pts JPN HONDA Drive M7 Aspar
13 Yonny Hernandez 11 pts COL DUCATI Pramac Racing
14 Scott Redding 11 pts GBR HONDA GO&FUN Honda Gresini
15 Cal Crutchlow 10 pts GBR DUCATI Ducati Team
16 Karel Abraham 8 pts CZE HONDA Cardion AB Motoracing
17 Colin Edwards 7 pts USA FORWARD YAMAHA NGM Forward Racing
18 Danilo Petrucci 2 pts ITA ART IodaRacing Project
19 Hector Barbera 1 pts ESP AVINTIA Avintia Racing
20 Broc Parkes 1 pts AUS PBM Paul Bird Motorsport
21 Mike De Meglio 0 pts FRA AVINTIA Avintia Racing
22 Michele Pirro 0 pts ITA DUCATI Ducati Team
23 Michael Laverty 0 pts WAL PBM Paul Bird Motorsport

.