Grand Prix of Qatar

Round 1 - Saturday, March 22nd 2014

Qatar - Qualifying Report

Weather conditions

Windy

21°C
Air temp

18°C
Track temp

50%
Humidity

Marquez takes Qatar pole with Pedrosa in 6th

Repsol Honda’s Marc Marquez has secured the first pole of the season at the Losail circuit in Qatar with a time of 1’54.507, marking his 10th MotoGP career pole, from 19 starts in the class. Teammate Dani Pedrosa, despite being just 0.196s from Marc with 1’54.703, will start from the second row in 6th position.

It was an exciting session with fastest times being traded between several riders. Marc, who is still suffering from the injury that sidelined him from the last two Winter tests, took provisional pole on his first exit in Q2 before securing it with a faster time on his final lap of his second exit. He’s now found a setup he is happy with and will work on fine tuning it in tomorrow’s warmup session.

Dani was also happy with his pace after making positive setup changes in FP4 and will be looking for one of his trademark starts in tomorrow’s 22 lap race, that will begin at 22h00 local time.

Team Quotes

1st - 1'54.507

“I’m really happy and this pole position is a special one for me, because after coming back from injury it gives me a boost in confidence. In any case, we know that tomorrow is the day that counts and it’s in the race that points are decided, so we have to be very focused. It is going to be a very tough for me physically, because I don't have much strength in my leg and I have to compensate with my right arm. We are happy with how today went and seem to have found a good setup, with just a few details still to refine in tomorrow's warmup. It will be difficult, because many riders have pace within a tenth of each other, but we shall try to have a good race”

6th - 1'54.703

"The qualifying session was really closely contested today - especially in the final laps. Looking at things objectively, we have a good pace and were able to set a fast lap in the session, even though in the end we qualified sixth by a really narrow margin. We're going to continue to be positive about things, believe in the work that we have been doing here so far this weekend, and tomorrow we'll give everything that we have to do well at the first race of the season"

qualifying results

Grand Prix of Qatar - Round 1

Pos.	Rider	Num.	Nation	Team	Constructor	Time/Gap
1	Marc Marquez	93	ESP	Repsol Honda Team	HONDA	1'54.507
2	Alvaro Bautista	19	ESP	Go & Fun Honda Gresini	HONDA	1'54.564
3	Bradley Smith	38	GBR	Monster Yamaha Tech 3	YAMAHA	1'54.601
4	Andrea Dovizioso	4	ITA	Ducati Team	DUCATI	1'54.644
5	Jorge Lorenzo	99	ESP	Yamaha Factory Racing	YAMAHA	1'54.661
6	Dani Pedrosa	26	ESP	Repsol Honda Team	HONDA	1'54.703
7	Stefan Bradl	6	GER	LCR Honda MotoGP	HONDA	1'54.871
8	Cal Crutchlow	35	GBR	Ducati Team	DUCATI	1'54.888
9	Aleix Espargaro	41	ESP	NGM Mobile Forward Racing	YAMAHA	1'54.986
10	Valentino Rossi	46	ITA	Yamaha Factory	YAMAHA	1'55.096
11	Andrea Iannone	29	ITA	Pramac Racing	DUCATI	1'55.127
12	Pol Espargaro	44	ESP	Monster Yamaha Tech 3	YAMAHA	1'55.152
13	Nicky Hayden	69	USA	Drive M7 Aspar	HONDA	1'55.894
14	Colin Edwards	5	USA	NGM Mobile Forward Racing	YAMAHA	1'56.042
15	Hiroshi Aoyama	7	JPN	Drive M7 Aspar	HONDA	1'56.479
16	Scott Redding	45	GBR	Go & Fun Honda Gresini	HONDA	1'56.555
17	Yonny Hernandez	68	COL	Pramac Racing	DUCATI	1'56.648
18	Karel Abraham	17	CZE	Cardion AB Motoracing	HONDA	1'56.715
19	Hector Barbera	8	ESP	Avintia Racing MotoGP	FTR-KAWASAKI	1'57.006
20	Danilo Petrucci	9	ITA	IodaRacing Project	IODA-SUTER	1'57.513
21	Broc Parkes	23	AUS	Paul Bird Motorsport	PBM	1'57.574
22	Mike Di Meglio	63	FRA	Avintia Racing MotoGP	FTR-KAWASAKI	1'57.667
23	Michael Laverty	70	GBR	Paul Bird Motorsport	ART & PBM	1'58.254

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Circuit Information

View circuit page at www.repsolhondateam.com

Length	5.380 m / 3.343 miles
Width	12m
Left corners	6
Right corners	10
Longest straight	1.068 m / 0.664 miles
Constructed	2004
Modified

Losail International Circuit
Al Wusail,North Relief Road
Doha, Qatar

T: +974 4472 9151
F: +974 4472 9246

www.circuitlosail.com

Pole Position	1m 53.927s (170.003km/h) Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha, 2008)
Race Lap	1m 55.153s (168.193km/h) Casey Stoner (Ducati, 2008)
Race Time	42m 36.587s (166.665km/h) Casey Stoner (Ducati, 2008)
2012 Winner	Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha)
2013 Winner	Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha)