What a spectacular Marc Marquez! He risks, he throws his Honda into the corners, he drags his elbow on the asphalt almost falling over and as if that were not enough, he even takes home pole position. It was a super performance by the Honda rider who set the qualifying record at Silverstone on his last attempt, stopping the clock at 1’59”941: “I did not expect to be the only one to drop below 2 minutes – he revealed – This track is very long, so it makes it difficult to do a perfect lap.”
For the Spaniard it was not all simple and a given, because in the final moments, Rossi proved to be particularly threatening. In fact, the Doctor finished the third sector with three tenths of a second advantage over his rival, but in the last section he struggled, finishing 84 thousandths behind the five-time world champion: “Unfortunately, I always struggle in T4 because the tyre slips – the Italian explained – For the race it will be more complicated, both with the medium and with the hard tyre.”
Closing out the first row is another Honda, not Dani Pedrosa’s, seventh at the end of the session (+0.637), but Cal Crutchlow’s: “It did not go at all badly – the Brit said – Last year pole position, this time third. I made a few too many errors, but I am enthusiastic about my performance.”
Behind the LCR rider was the Yamaha ridden by Maverick Viñales, four tenths behind his compatriot, trailed by just 58 thousandths by the first of the Ducati riders, namely Jorge Lorenzo. It was a bitter sweet session, on the other hand, for Andrea Dovizioso, forced to settle for the sixth place time (+0.631) more than six tenths behind the leader.
The satellite Yamaha machines were lagging behind, with Johann Zarco eighth (+0.681), whereas Jonas Folger was tenth (+0.888), forced to go through Q1. Between the two team Tech3 M1 machines was Aleix Espargaró on his Aprilia (+0.823). Behind the German were Pol Espargaró and Scott Redding, with the KTM rider in the gravel toward the end of the session but with no consequences for him.