Repsol Honda's Marquez Takes 5th Pole of Season, Pedrosa 9th in Close Qualifying in MotoGP Round 5 at LeMans

Press Release www.repsolhondateam.com Grand Prix de France Round 5 - Saturday, May 17th 2014   France - Qualifying Report Weather conditions sunny 23°C Air temp 43°C Track temp 34% Humidity Marquez thunders to 5th consecutive pole taking new lap record en route After dominating the French GP weekend so far, Repsol Honda’s Marc Marquez recorded his fifth pole of the season – in as many races – and set the fastest lap ever on two wheels at the Le Mans circuit. Teammate Dani Pedrosa will start from the third row of the grid in ninth position after struggling with the time attack in qualifying. It was another thrilling session in sunny conditions in Le Mans with Marc wasting no time to set a fast time on his first run. However, on his second exit of Q2 Marc bettered his own time by half a second and lapped the 4.185km circuit in a new record time of 1’32.042, which was 0.692 faster than anyone else, and beat Dani’s record time from 2008 – on qualifying tyres – by 0.605s (1’32.647). It was a tougher session for Dani who has been fast all weekend but wasn’t able to push in qualifying this afternoon. Despite being the fastest rider in the speed trap with a top speed of 309.7km/h, Dani was only able to qualify ninth for tomorrows 28 lap race with a time of 1’33.023. Team Quotes 1st - 1'32.042 "I'm very happy to be on pole and also with the gap between myself and second place on the timesheet. Tomorrow will be interesting as my main rivals - Dani, Jorge and Valentino - are not on the front row but on rows two and three. However, I know they will be there in the battle and we must be prepared. Starting from pole is an advantage and I will try to capitalise from it and give 100% - as always - to fight for the win!” 9th - 1'33.023 “Free practice wasn't too bad for us, but in qualifying we weren't so great. I’m riding a little smoother this weekend and not so aggressive, due to my injured forearm, and when I wanted to push to improve my times I wasn’t really able to. I think that in general we have done a good job in practice and I will try to get a good start tomorrow, because I am very far back. It will be important to bring the tyre temperature up on the warmup lap and try to overtake some riders in the opening laps” qualifying results   Grand Prix de France - Round 5 Pos. Rider Num. Nation Team Constructor Time/Gap 1 Marc Marquez 93 ESP Repsol Honda Team HONDA 1'32.042 2 Pol Espargaro 44 ESP Monster Yamaha Tech 3 YAMAHA 1'32.734 3 Andrea Dovizioso 4 ITA Ducati Team DUCATI 1'32.755 4 Stefan Bradl 6 GER LCR Honda MotoGP HONDA 1'32.846 5 Valentino Rossi 46 ITA Yamaha Factory YAMAHA 1'32.873 6 Jorge Lorenzo 99 ESP Yamaha Factory Racing YAMAHA 1'32.899 7 Alvaro Bautista 19 ESP Go & Fun Honda Gresini HONDA 1'33.006 8 Aleix Espargaro 41 ESP NGM Mobile Forward Racing YAMAHA 1'33.015 9 Dani Pedrosa 26 ESP Repsol Honda Team HONDA 1'33.023 10 Bradley Smith 38 GBR Monster Yamaha Tech 3 YAMAHA 1'33.058 11 Andrea Iannone 29 ITA Pramac Racing DUCATI 1'33.102 12 Cal Crutchlow 35 GBR Ducati Team DUCATI 1'33.315 13 Nicky Hayden 69 USA Drive M7 Aspar HONDA 1'33.859 14 Yonny Hernandez 68 COL Pramac Racing DUCATI 1'33.999 15 Colin Edwards 5 USA NGM Mobile Forward Racing YAMAHA 1'34.203 16 Scott Redding 45 GBR Go & Fun Honda Gresini HONDA 1'34.233 17 Hiroshi Aoyama 7 JPN Drive M7 Aspar HONDA 1'34.457 18 Karel Abraham 17 CZE Cardion AB Motoracing HONDA 1'34.880 19 Hector Barbera 8 ESP Avintia Racing MotoGP FTR-KAWASAKI 1'35.499 20 Broc Parkes 23 AUS Paul Bird Motorsport PBM 1'35.795 21 Michael Laverty 70 GBR Paul Bird Motorsport ART & PBM 1'35.932 22 Mike Di Meglio 63 FRA Avintia Racing MotoGP FTR-KAWASAKI 1'36.163 Copyright Free Images - For Editorial use only                                                 Circuit Information View circuit page at www.repsolhondateam.com Length 4.185 m / 2.600 miles Width 13m Left corners 4 Right corners 9 Longest straight 674 m / 0.419 miles Constructed 1966 Modified 2008     Automobile Club de l'Ouest Circuit des 24 Heures 72019 Le Mans Cedex 2 T: +33 (0)2 43 40 24 00 F: +33 (0)2 43 40 24 88   www.lemans.org   Pole Position 1m 32.647s (162.617km/h) Dani Pedrosa (Honda, 2008) Race Lap 1m 33.617s (160.932km/h) Dani Pedrosa (Honda, 2011) Race Time 44m 03.955s (159.551km/h) Casey Stoner (Honda, 2011) 2012 Race Winner Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha) 2013 Race Winner Dani Pedrosa (Honda)   Honda Racing Corporation 3-15-1, Senzui, Asaka-shi, Saitama-Pref., 351-0024 Japan