Repsol Honda's Marquez Takes 12th Pole of Season, Pedrosa 5th in MotoGP Qualifying at Phillip Island

Press Release www.repsolhondateam.com Australian Grand Prix Round 16 - Saturday, October 18th 2014   Australia - Qualifying Report Weather conditions overcast 20°C Air temp 25°C Track temp 51% Humidity World Champion Marquez takes pole number twelve in Australia with Pedrosa 5th Repsol Honda’s Marc Marquez has today achieved his twelfth pole position of 2014, equalling the pole record in a single season held by fellow Repsol Honda riders Mick Doohan (1997) and Casey Stoner (2011). Teammate Dani Pedrosa will start from the second row in 5th position, but just 0.033 seconds off second place. With track temperatures 10ºC lower than yesterday it was another difficult day for the riders, looking to find the optimum setup for this tricky circuit. Dani’s best time over the first three sessions (1’29.976) was not fast enough to promote him to Q2, finishing 0.031 seconds off tenth place. However, his time in Q1 of 1’29.097 was the fastest time set so far this weekend and immediately promoted him into Q1. After setting his fast lap, a brief rain shower arrived to disrupt proceedings but fortunately dried up before Q2 began. With eleven riders within 0.747 seconds of each other, Marc was able to snatch pole position with his time of 1’28.408. Dani improved again from Q1 and his time of 1’28.675 places him in fifth on the grid. Tomorrow’s 27 lap race will begin at 16h00 local time. Team Quotes 1st - 1'28.408 "Today I felt pretty good and that's important, because we found it hard yesterday and I was a bit too far off the pace. We improved a lot today and were riding more comfortably. We expect a hard-fought race tomorrow, but I just have to enjoy it. Above all, it will be difficult to stop both Jorge and Valentino, who seem to have the fastest race pace. My focus on track and ambition are the same as ever and we will try to be at the front, but also over the weekend we have been trying different things out with next season in mind.” 5th - 1'28.675 "It was a difficult day because I did not qualify directly for Q2. I had many problems in the morning session, which also came up in the afternoon practice. However, in qualifying I took a big step forward. Unfortunately, as I had to go through Q1 I lost a tyre and in Q2 I could only use one. Nevertheless, my lap time was pretty good and, although I was bested by a few thousandths of a second, I could have placed very high up on the grid. Tomorrow we will try to fight our hardest in the race and get a good start, then concentrate on making each lap perfect.” qualifying results   Australian Grand Prix - Round 16 Pos. Rider Num. Nation Team Constructor Time/Gap 1 Marc Marquez 93 ESP Repsol Honda Team HONDA 1'28.408 2 Cal Crutchlow 35 GBR Ducati Team DUCATI 1'28.642 3 Jorge Lorenzo 99 ESP Movistar Yamaha MotoGP YAMAHA 1'28.650 4 Bradley Smith 38 GBR Monster Yamaha Tech 3 YAMAHA 1'28.656 5 Dani Pedrosa 26 ESP Repsol Honda Team HONDA 1'28.675 6 Aleix Espargaro 41 ESP NGM Mobile Forward Racing YAMAHA 1'28.866 7 Andrea Iannone 29 ITA Pramac Racing DUCATI 1'28.887 8 Valentino Rossi 46 ITA Movistar Yamaha MotoGP YAMAHA 1'28.956 9 Pol Espargaro 44 ESP Monster Yamaha Tech 3 YAMAHA 1'28.968 10 Andrea Dovizioso 4 ITA Ducati Team DUCATI 1'29.088 11 Stefan Bradl 6 GER LCR Honda MotoGP HONDA 1'29.155 12 Hiroshi Aoyama 7 JPN Drive M7 Aspar HONDA 1'29.955 13 Scott Redding 45 GBR Go & Fun Honda Gresini HONDA 1'30.280 14 Hector Barbera 8 ESP Avintia Racing MotoGP FTR-KAWASAKI 1'30.348 15 Nicky Hayden 69 USA Drive M7 Aspar HONDA 1'30.542 16 Karel Abraham 17 CZE Cardion AB Motoracing HONDA 1'30.569 17 Alvaro Bautista 19 ESP Go & Fun Honda Gresini HONDA 1'30.635 18 Yonny Hernandez 68 COL Pramac Racing DUCATI 1'30.729 19 Danilo Petrucci 9 ITA IodaRacing Project IODA-SUTER 1'30.812 20 Mike Di Meglio 63 FRA Avintia Racing MotoGP FTR-KAWASAKI 1'31.431 21 Michael Laverty 70 GBR Paul Bird Motorsport ART & PBM 1'31.492 22 Broc Parkes 23 AUS Paul Bird Motorsport PBM 1'31.730 23 Alex De Angelis 15 RSM NGM Mobile Forward Racing YAMAHA 1'32.595 Copyright Free Images - For Editorial use only                                            Circuit Information View circuit page at www.repsolhondateam.com Length 4.448 m / 2.764 miles Width 13m Left corners 7 Right corners 5 Longest straight 900 m / 0.559 miles Constructed 1956 Modified 1988 Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit RMB 500GP Cowes Victoris 3922 Australia www.phillipislandcircuit.com.au Pole Position 1m 27.899s (182.1 km/h) Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha, 2013) Race Lap 1m 28.108s (181.7 km/h) Marc Marquez (Honda, 2013) Race time 29m 07.155s (179.1 km/h) Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha, 2013) 2012 Race Winner Casey Stoner (Honda) 2013 Race Winner Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha)   Honda Racing Corporation 3-15-1, Senzui, Asaka-shi, Saitama-Pref., 351-0024 Japan