Márquez takes record pole at Misano MotoGP, with Lorenzo 2nd and Rossi 3rd

The MotoGP World Championship has held the pole position session for the San Marino round at the Misano Marco Simoncelli Circuit, where we have seen plenty of action on track; without a doubt, an extremely intense battle awaits us on the Italian layout.

Before the battle for pole position began, the fourth free practice session of the weekend was held at Misano, with the fastest being FP4 Marc Márquez, all of this despite a very nasty crash at the start of the session, fortunately without serious physical consequences, and allowing us to see the #93 back on track after the incident.

Despite that scare, Márquez managed a lap time of 1’33.912, being the only rider to lap in 1:33. Meanwhile, the second place went to Jorge Lorenzo; the Mallorcan finished 0.213s behind the leader, with the top 10 completed by Bautista 3rd, Rossi 4th, Pedrosa 5th, Dovi 6th, Crutchlow 7th, Bradl 8th, Pirro 9th and Iannone 10th.

After that final free practice session, the battle for pole began, although first came the Q1, the repechage, where two riders would advance to Q2 and fight alongside the other 10 riders for the grid positions. The best in this Q1 was Michele Pirro, with a time of 1:34.678, while the second position that granted entry to Q2 went to Cal Crutchlow.

The remaining Q1 positions were: 13th Smith, 14th Edwards, 15th Aoyama, 16th De Puniet, 17th Barberá, 18th Corti, 19th Petrucci, 20th Laverty, 21st Hernández, 22nd Abraham, 23rd Staring, 24th Pesek.

Now comes the real action, Q2 with the 12 best MotoGP riders at Misano, as Jorge Lorenzo went out flat out and very fast from the start; the Mallorcan set a good time early on, so the Yamaha rider, taking advantage of a clear track, went all in to set a lap fast enough to secure the honour of the front row.

But Márquez is on another level, and with 10 minutes remaining he set a brutal lap, dropping to a 1:33.4 and showing that he wants pole, and that despite scares and crashes he is in top form at Misano. With 5 minutes left came the key moment of Q2, and we saw Marc Márquez shine again, fly, amaze, and break more records; this time the time Stoner held as the Misano track record, with a spectacular 1:32.915.

The #93 flew in his final laps; after coming through the pits, the Repsol rider set a brutal time, being the only rider in the whole grid to lap in 1:32, while behind him Jorge Lorenzo was 2nd, more than half a second back, so incredible from the young rider. The front row was completed by Rossi, 3rd in this official session, 0.6s behind the leader.

Completing the MotoGP top 10 at Misano: Pedrosa 4th, Crutchlow 5th, Espargaró 6th, Bradl 7th, Bautista 8th, Dovi 9th and Hayden 10th.

Brutal Márquez, takes his sixth pole position of the 2013 season at Misano and will make things difficult for the others.

Photo | MotoGP Official website and teams