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)