Many expected a Honda to be ahead of the rest, but perhaps few would have predicted Cal Crutchlow’s. Of course, the Englishman had finished at the top on the first day, but Marc Marquez seemed ready to snatch it. Instead, Cal, with a medium tyre on the front and soft on the rear, had the cleanest ride with a time of 1’37”653 that earned him the pole, as well as the new track record by almost three tenths. “The team did a great job, as did the manufacturer and that pays off. I can’t wait to race.”
Speaking of Marc Marquez, the Spaniard even missed out on the front row and he’ll be forced to start from the fifth spot on the grid after making a small mistake in both of the last two laps available to him. This means that starting alongside Crutchlow will be Daniel Pedrosa, challenged by physical problems. “I am happy with the front row – he explains – and I’m surprised since I wasn’t sure that I would be fast on a flying lap. We worked a lot in view of the race, so let’s hope it goes well.”
The third spot went to Johann Zarco, his seventh consecutive front row. “Being strong in qualifying is always helpful. The feeling is good and I had fun, although in FP4 the heat slowed me down. Qualifying did not go well at the start, but then the bike started working and everything went better.” Jorge Lorenzo can also smile, 13 thousandths behind the front row and ahead of Marquez and Alex Rins; for Suzuki it was a bittersweet session, given the fact that the Spaniard’s sixth place and Andrea Iannone’s seventh, both three tenths of a second behind the leader, perhaps do not accurately reflect what they had previously demonstrated.
Eighth place went to Andrea Dovizioso: the championship leader came through Q1 unscathed, but in Q2 he once again showed that this track is not his favourite. Things were worse for Maverick Viñales, going through to Q2 with the Italian and only 11th behind Valentino Rossi. It was a day to forget for Valentino who, also running the medium on the front and the soft on the rear, failed in his first attempt and then improved after a struggle on his second go.