Suzuki 1-2 on Catalunya MotoGP grid
Aleix Espargaro smashes lap record to take stunning home pole
Team Suzuki Ecstar claim a sensational qualifying 1-2 as local hero Aleix Espargaro secured pole ahead of Maverick Viñales with a lap record-breaking performance
In almost perfect conditions, with track temperatures soaring to a high of 42 degrees Celsius, Aleix Espargaro claimed the first pole position for Suzuki since Australian Chris Vermeulen topped qualifying at Assen in 2007.
The Spaniard smashed Dani Pedrosa’s 2013 lap record (1’40.893) by over 0.3s as he set a 1’40.546 around the 4.7km Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya to claim his second MotoGP pole. It got even better for Suzuki and the all-new GSX-RR as teammate Maverick Viñales was just 0.083s slower in second, completing a dream result for the Japanese manufacturer in its first season back in the premier class since 2011.
Aleix Espargaro P1 – “I’m very happy because making the Pole Position here in front of our own people is spectacular. It’s also good for Suzuki as they are working very hard and are consistently improving and supporting us, so to have two riders at the front of the grid is very rewarding. Once again we must keep in mind that it’s only Saturday and things are much-more important tomorrow. We need to stay with the front riders and to fight for the podium would be a dream, so we’ll see if we are capable of it. We have a good pace; in FP4 I ran many laps with a used hard tyre and my feeling with it was good.”
Maverick Viñales P2 – “It was amazing: We did a really great job both in the first free practice sessions and now in qualifying. Being on the front row means that our work is going smoothly and also that Suzuki is doing a good job. Today was perfect; this morning I was first and then in the second session, well honestly, I believed also that the Pole was possible for me but finally Aleix was faster by such a small amount, but I know this is also a very special event for him too, so I must be happy to be right behind him. I’m quite confident for tomorrow, my pace is pretty good; and I believe we can do a great race. Of course I will do my best to fight with the front riders and hopefully I will have many chances to make overtakes and enjoy a satisfying race with my GSX-RR.”
Davide Brivio – Suzuki Team Manager – “Even if it’s only Saturday, for us this is almost a historic result; it’s only our seventh race and we have our riders in first-and-second-place after qualifying. I couldn’t even imagine such a positive result but it is well deserved. This comes from the huge job done by the riders who are putting a lot of effort in, but also from the contribution of our development team in Japan which is continuously working on improving the machine. In addition, it’s the work of the team here at the track, from whom we’ve asked so much, with many hours and long nights working and we will continue asking for hard work from them as the season goes on. It’s only a qualifying session but is very important for us because it’s a little prize for everyone as it helps team morale and pushes us to do better and better. Tomorrow the race will be another story, but I believe our pace is not bad and the objective will be to stay as close as we can to the top group in the race. We hope that tomorrow will be another step forward in our performance and now I’m curious to see how it will go.”
Movistar Yamaha’s Jorge Lorenzo was the only rider who used a two-stop strategy to allow him to utilise three tyres during the session. Lorenzo has set the most consistent race pace over the weekend and he made it four successive front rows starts as he finished 0.1s behind Espargaro in third.
Jorge Lorenzo P3 – “We couldn’t get the pole position today, by just a little. We had three tyres saved for qualifying but unfortunately on my last try I made a mistake in turn three, I went too fast and a bit wide. In this corner, when you arrive wide you get a bounce and the bike becomes unstable. I had to put the bike up straight a little bit and lost three-tenths there. It was a pity, because it was a good lap on the rest of the track, but I’m very happy about my lap, because with this bike it’s not easy to ride a 1’40,6 in a single hot lap. We finish in front of our main competitors, who are always very quick in the one-lap shoot out. I’m very happy to be on the first row, for tomorrow that’s the important thing, and I think we have a good pace for the race. This morning I rode 1’41s for ten laps, but tomorrow at two o’clock it will be more difficult to be on this pace. I hope to have a similar, or just a little bit slower, pace as I had this morning.”
Repsol Honda’s Marc Marquez (+0.208s) has benefitted from a new exhaust on his RC213V in Barcelona and led the session after the first set of flying laps. The reigning MotoGP™ World Champion looked like he take his 26th MotoGP pole on his last lap, only to lose crucial time in the last sector and he will start the race from the head of the second row.
Marc Marquez P4 – “Today went fairly well. To be honest, the objective was to get onto the front row; it’s a shame that in the end it eluded us, but Aleix and Maverick were very fast. For tomorrow’s race, I think that Jorge has the best pace, although we shouldn’t forget about Valentino and also Dani. They are all dangerous, but we will try to give 100% in front of the home fans in order to be as close as possible to them. We’ll see if we can keep with them when we get to the end of the race.”
Ducati Team’s Andrea Dovizioso (+0.361s) managed to set the fifth fastest time on his GP15, ahead of Marquez’ teammate Pedrosa (+0.382s). Pedrosa, who made it through from Q1 earlier alongside Andrea Iannone, was on course for a stunning lap time in the closing moments when he was over a tenth up after the first two sectors. But his hopes of a second successive pole at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya were thwarted when he was held up by Yonny Hernandez at turn 9 and be had to settle for sixth.
Andrea Dovizioso P5 – “We have to be pleased with the qualifying result and the time we set. It’s true we start from row 2, but my time is not bad at all. We’re still missing something in the set-up and the conditions are not the same as in the other races, but we are all close together and with some small improvements we can get closer to the frontrunners, seeing as the track conditions in the afternoon help to mix up the cards a bit. We have worked well and now we have to concentrate on the fine-tuning so we can make a further step forward for the race.”
Dani Pedrosa P6 – “It was a difficult qualifying session because at this track in particular the soft tyre peaks on the first lap and then drops down. We had to go through Q1, because this morning we had a problem and couldn’t go directly into Q2 after I made a small mistake on my final run in FP3. As has been typical recently, the times are very tight, so we will be starting from sixth for the race but we will continue working tomorrow morning in order to try and improve further.”
Valentino Rossi (Movistar Yamaha) recovered from a poor performance on the first day of Practice to start the race from the front of the third row in seventh. Bradley Smith on the Monster Yamaha Tech 3 will start from just behind him on the grid as the leading Satellite rider, ahead of his compatriot Cal Crutchlow (CWM LCR Honda) who completes the third row after crashing out late on at turn 10 while he pushed for a first front row start of 2015.
Valentino Rossi P7 – “I’m quite satisfied with the set-up and the turn of events of today. Yesterday we found a good balance for the last exit and we have a good setting, so I feel confident with the bike and today was not so bad. I have a good pace with a used tyre and for tomorrow that will be very important. I expect we will have to make some improvement for tomorrow, we have some work to do in the warm up and apply some small modifications. For the race, as always it will be important to make a good start and stay within the top positions in the first laps. After that I will try to understand the pace for the second half of the race when the tyres start to slide a bit.”
Bradley Smith P8 – “I’m happy with my qualifying position after the tricky weekend we have had so far. We have tried a lot of different solutions to solve the issues that we had yesterday but the changes that we expected to help, didn’t and the choices that we gambled with were the ones that finally worked. Therefore we found something for the qualifying which also meant that we were able to amend the rear grip issue and so I could set a good lap time. I’m pleased with 8th as I am on the third row, right next to Valentino and in front of Cal which is a solid place to begin the fight from. Furthermore, I am also excited to try the new setting in tomorrow’s warm up as I am keen to see how quick our pace is. For sure, it will be a long and challenging race but I am positive and now we just need to work on putting a good 25 laps together. It’s very easy to make a mistake at this track and we’ve seen a few riders lose the front so we need to study as much data as we can in order to prepare for it. Nevertheless, I am confident and ready for the battle tomorrow where I will be aiming to fight inside the top six again.”
Cal Crutchlow P9 – “I think we’re set up well for the race, and I’m actually pleased with how the day went. We may be ninth on the grid but I think it’s clear for everybody to see that the Honda riders are struggling in these conditions more than in other years. The factory I know are working really hard for us back in Japan to make things better. I know I made a mistake at the end, but I had warned my team that I was going to push as hard as I could to get onto the front row for the first time this year! I pushed, and sadly that was the end result. Overall I’m happy with my speed and my race pace, rather than my overall fastest lap. Ninth isn’t where we are in reality.”
Octo Pramac Racing’s Yonny Hernandez rounds out the top ten, while Pol Espargaro (Monster Yamaha Tech 3) was frustrated to start from 11th on the grid after he crashed at turn 1. The leader of the Open class Championship, Hector Barbera (Avintia Racing), will start from the head of the fifth row in 13th, just ahead of Brit Scott Redding (Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS).
Pol Espargaro P11 – “Today was a day of two stories for me. In this morning’s free practice session I felt fine, I could ride comfortably and the setup of the bike was very positive after the small changes that we made yesterday. However, then our luck changed. The temperature increased quite sharply which caused the grip levels to drop and as a result we could not ride at the pace or rhythm that we wanted to. We need to take a look at the data in order to understand what happened and how we can fix this for the race tomorrow because even though the starting positions is not great, if we don’t fix this issue the race will be very tricky. In addition, we had some more bad luck as we got a defected rear tyre which has happened already before this year. This effectively caused me to lose my first set of laps but I remained out on track as I always tend to think that the second run will be better and there is a good chance of being able to improve. When I went in and changed the tyre, my feeling on the bike improved a lot and I scored my best time but I still lacked a bit of confidence after the first few laps. Then I pushed a bit too hard because the session was drawing to a close, hit a bump and crashed. This was a real shame as I could have cut another two or three tenths of a second and clinched a start on the row in front. However, this grid position means that I need to undertake a strong start and then battle from there. We will fight and do our best but it will be a challenging race.”
Andrea Iannone P12 – “Today during qualifying I did not get the best out of my bike’s potential and was unable to obtain the result I had expected. During my second run with a soft tyre, I made a mistake while I was improving my time and this prevented me from getting a better result. I am disappointed about having to start from so far behind, but I’m still positive about tomorrow because I feel that with a good start I can do a good race. My race pace does not seem to be bad and today in FP4 I went quite well, so I am pretty confident. Now we have to focus on the details so as to be ready for tomorrow’s race, where it will be important to start well.”
Scott Redding P14 – “We lost out on QP2 in FP3 because I got held up on my fast lap. We knew going into QP1 that when the other guys used their soft tyre, and also having Dani looking for a place in QP2, that it would be very difficult to make it through the session. In FP4 with the used tyre it felt pretty good and even in qualifying we made some improvements but unfortunately it wasn’t enough to make it through. At the end of the day we have to start where we’re going to start from tomorrow and then it’s the same as every weekend; try and make the time back in the race.”
Bradl will start from the fifth row. Stefan Bradl P15 – “I am pleased with what has been done today. We managed to make a good step forward compared to yesterday and I fought until the end for Open class pole. I’m positive for tomorrow: I was lapping alone for most of the time in qualifying and this is a great starting point for the race. Our target is to finally reach the checkered flag and get some points.”
The Aspar MotoGP Team duo of Nicky Hayden and Eugene Laverty were 18th and 22nd respectively.
Nicky Hayden P18 – “We made a promising start to the weekend yesterday with a 1’42.6 in the first session. We set the time at the end of the session on a new set of soft tyres but I had a steady pace in the low 1’43s so it was a good start. As the weekend has progressed the situation has not improved and we have dropped down the order. We have played around quite a lot with the bike and improved some things but we can’t be happy with the position today. I know the bike has better potential than this and we ought to be faster. We knew how important qualifying was today and we wanted to be higher up than this. My pace was decent but we didn’t get the fast lap in. We have work to do on the stability of the bike in corner exit so hopefully we can find some improvements in the morning and have a good race.”
Eugene Laverty P22 – “Today has been a bit of a tough day for us, with two crashes – one in turn five and one in turn three. The first one was stupid and I am annoyed about it, the second one I lost the front. We have worked hard all weekend on the rear but we are still having some problems. Both bikes are similar but I prefer my number one machine and after the crash I had to go into qualifying on the second one. Yesterday was positive and we found some solutions but today wasn’t as straightforward. Hopefully we can turn things around tomorrow and enjoy the race.”
Jack Miller will start tomorrow’s Grand Prix of Catalunya from the seventh row of the grid after a challenging qualifying session in the Barcelona sunshine. The Australian had made some forward progress during the cooler morning practice, and despite a scary crash when the bumps unseated the brake pads on his Honda RC213V-RS, he had still hoped for a positive qualifying practice. However, once the temperatures soared in the afternoon, he found going tougher as he sealed 21st position on the grid for Sunday’s race.
Jack Miller P21 – “We improved today, that’s for sure, but we are still having some problems with the front as well as some spinning in the rear which is really crucial around here. We’re making progress though, and made a big step during FP3 although it didn’t quite translate from free practice into the qualifier. We’ll go back now and look over the data tonight to try and make a good bike for the warm up and see what we can do tomorrow in the race. The main thing is we need to get some more grip.”
Loris Baz was held back by chattering problems and will start from the the seventh row. The Frenchman is targeting the top 15 again for tomorrow.
Loris Baz P19 – “So far we have done a good job but in qualifying I suffered a lot of tyres chattering and I was not able to push hard. We have to analyse the data and find a solution for the warm up to improve the pace for the race.”
Alvaro Bautista qualified 20th while Marco Melandri will start from 24th.
Alvaro Bautista – “Today we improved our pace a bit compared to yesterday but I’m still lacking grip at the rear. In FP4 I went out on used tyres specifically to try and see how the bike would perform in this situation. With the new tyre in the qualifiers I lapped faster but the race will be more difficult because this track really eats up the tyres and this is a situation that my bike does not like much.”
Marco Melandri – “To be honest I expected to take a bigger step forward. We worked well but we still haven’t solved the usual chassis problem. Tomorrow we’ll try a different setting to aim for a decent race.”
Earlier, Karel Abraham had a nasty crash in FP4 exiting turn 4 and the Czech Republic rider will miss the rest of the weekend after a severely dislocating the big toe on his left foot.
MotoGP Qualifying Results
Zarco takes second Moto2 pole of the season
Moto2 World Championship leader Zarco smashed Marc Marquez’ 2012 lap record (1’46.187) on his way to setting a stunning lap of 1’45.895 that secured the Frenchman a seventh career Grand Prix pole position and third in the intermediate category.
AGR Team’s Jonas Folger (+0.165s), who is the only rider with two victories in Moto2 this year, will start from the middle of the front row ahead of reigning Moto2™ World Champion Tito Rabat (+0.228s) on the Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS Kalex.
Technomag Racing Interwetten’s Dominique Aegerter (+0.296s) continued the form that saw him on the podium in Mugello by finishing fourth fastest.
Speed Up Racing’s Sam Lowes (+0.438s) missed out on the front row for the first time since Jerez in fifth after an amazing recovery from a front-end slide at turn 9 in Qualifying.
Luis Salom (+0.583s) and his Paginas Amarillas teammate Alex Rins were sixth and seventh respectively, ahead of Simone Corsi (Athina Forward Racing), Sandro Cortese (Dynavolt Intact GP) and Thomas Luthi (Derendinger Interwetten Racing) who completed the top ten.
There were crashes in the session for Ricky Cardus, Randy Krummenacher, Julian Simon and Wild Card Ramdan Rosli, but the quartet were all unhurt.
Moto2 Qualifying Results
Bastianini claims maiden Moto3 pole
Gresini Racing Team Moto3’s Bastianini recorded a record-breaking lap of 1’50.137 to finish on top of a frantic qualifying session at the Montmelo Circuit. The 17-year-old fought through the traffic to beat Alex Marquez’ 1’50.232 pole time from last year in the process.
Leopard Racing’s Championship leader Danny Kent was 0.144s adrift in second. Bastianini and Kent were a class above the rest of the field, with no other rider able to lap within 0.5s off the dominant duo, who sit first and second in the World Championship standings going into tomorrow’s 22-lap race.
Estrella Galicia 0,0’s Jorge Navarro completed the front row but was 0.703s behind Bastianini, while Niccolo Antonelli on the Ongetta-Rivacold Honda (+0.711s) will start from the head of the second row.
Mugello race winner, Red Bull KTM Ajo’s Miguel Oliveira (+0.720s), is in fifth and one place ahead of Kent’s teammate Efren Vazquez (+0.757s) who completed the second row.
Fabio Quartararo (Estrella Galicia 0,0), Niklas Ajo (RBA Racing Team), Philipp Oettl (Schedl GP Racing) and Hiroki Ono (Leopard Racing) rounded out the top ten.
Scottish rider John McPhee improved late on in the session to set the eleventh best time on the SAXOPRINT RTG Honda. Husqvarna Factory Laglisse’s Maria Herrera finished the session in 14th while Livio Loi (RW Racing GP) will have to start from 29th on the grid after crashing out for the second time today in the Qualifying session.
Remy Gardner P25 – “It’s a shame because we’ve done a good job with our bike from the first free practice but at the end it’s been quite impossible get a clean line and set a good lap time. The most important thing is that the bike is ready for the race. I just need to avoid incidents during the first laps and try to keep my pace. My right wrist is not so painful but is not hundred per cent well”.
Moto3 Qualifying Results
