Marc Márquez takes pole position for MotoGP in Qatar. Bautista 2nd and Smith 3rd

The MotoGP World Championship has contested the battle for the first pole position of the 2014 season at the Qatar Circuit, where we have been able to see the first taste of action in Q1 and Q2 respectively, although before that they completed the final 30 minutes of practice in FP4.

FP4 was dominated by Bradley Smith, the Briton set a time of 1:55.427, followed by Marc Márquez 0.005s behind, while third place went to Aleix Espargaró, who was 0.032s off the leader. Therefore, there is a lot of parity at the front. The rest of the top 10 was completed by Pedrosa, Iannone, Bautista, Lorenzo, Dovi, Bradl and Rossi.

After FP4, it was the turn of Q1, where all the riders fight for the chance to enter Q2 through the two remaining available positions. Maximum action, with several favourites among the participants in the repechage.

In Q1 we saw Pol Espargaró and Cal Crutchlow go all out to enter Q2, while we saw Yonny Hernández crash again, who is having a complicated weekend. The session did not have major changes, and in the end it was Pol Espargaró on his Yamaha and Cal Crutchlow on his Ducati who advanced to Q2. The Catalan set a time of 1:55.406, while the Briton was 0.097s behind. The remaining positions were 13th Hayden, 14th Edwards, 15th Hernández, 16th Abraham, 17th Redding, 18th Barberá, 19th Aoyama, 20th Petrucci, 21st Parkes, 22nd Di Meglio and 23rd Laverty.

And the moment of all-out battle arrived, Q2 with all the favourite riders in action at this first meeting of the season, with plenty of action after the first reference lap and a scare for Aleix Espargaró, who went down, fortunately without serious physical consequences, but he was unable to give his maximum in the first part of Q2.

For his part, Márquez took the first position and controlled the situation, although with a Smith very close to his times and strong. After all the riders entered the pits to change tyres, the final attack came, with almost all the riders on red, the reference being Márquez, who saw Bautista overtake him and Aleix Espargaró coming up very fast from behind, but the 41 went down when he was setting pole position, he was pushing to the maximum with his Open. But it was Márquez who was able to put on a show from behind, returning to the lead and leaving Álvaro in second position.

Pole for the MotoGP World Champion, Márquez, who set a time of 1:54.507, while Bautista finished in second place just 0.057s behind. Completing the top 12 with Smith 3rd, Dovi 4th, Lorenzo 5th, Pedrosa 6th, Bradl 7th, Crutchlow 8th, A. Espargaró 9th, Rossi 10th, Iannone 11th and P. Espargaró 12th.

Tomorrow, more action and the race.

Photo | Equipos y MotoGP Official website