2015 Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix: qualifying

Marc Marquez at his imperious best has taken his eighth pole position of 2015, his second in a row at Phillip Island and the 30th of his premier-class career ahead of Sunday’s 2015 Pramac Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix.

Marquez, still to score a MotoGP point in Australia, gave himself the best possible chance of breaking his duck when he dominated the 15-minute Q2 session, ending it with a time of 1:28.364 to hold off the Ducati of Andrea Iannone by just over three-tenths of a second.

“It looks like this weekend everything is going really good,” said the outgoing world champion. “Always we did the correct steps and this is the most difficult. It’s really important to manage the tyres and we will try to improve even in the warm-up.”

The only cloud on a sunny day for the 22-year-old Spaniard was on his second run, when, on his number two bike, he lost the front end at Turn 4, sat up and snatched his injured left hand away from the handlebars as the sudden movement jarred his arm.

‘The Maniac’, as Iannone likes to be known, incurred the wrath of Jorge Lorenzo by twice slotting into the Yamaha rider’s slipstream – and beating the Spaniard right at the end of the session.

Both men were credited with the same lap time of 1:26.680, but the higher grid position went to Iannone, whose second-fastest lap of 1:28.821 was quicker – just – than Lorenzo’s 1:28.839.

“I’m so happy, but it wasn’t easy for me,” said the 26-year-old Iannone, who will make his fifth front-row start of 2015. “With my bike I stayed at the limit and with the softer tyre I improved a lot. But without Jorge, for sure, I would have improved but not by this big step.”

Lorenzo, who will make his eighth consecutive front-row start, vented his feelings after the session. “As always, I tried to make a very fast three laps, each one faster than the one before,” explained the 28-yearold Spaniard.

“Andrea followed me on the last two and it was frustrating: you try to make your own way but he was able to benefit from my wheel to pass me on the grid. It’s not the same to start from third as second.”

Consolation for Lorenzo, who starts Sunday’s race 18 points adrift of his team-mate Valentino Rossi, is that ‘The Doctor’ had an off-colour session and will start from the third row after qualifying seventh.

Dani Pedrosa on the second Repsol Honda, Cal Crutchlow on the LCR Honda and Suzuki’s rising star Maverick Vinales will occupy the second row.

In Q1 Aussie Jack Miller made a valiant attempt to go through to Q2 for the first time in his MotoGP career but fell just short on the Open class LCR Honda. Miller posted a best lap of 1:30.104, just under half a second off the front-running pace set by the Espargaro brothers as they took the top two spots to make it through to Q2 with the top 10 finishers from the combined FP1-2-3 times.

Miller was fifth-quickest in the short session and will start from the fifth row.

It was a story of what might have been for the older Espargaro, Aleix on the ECSTAR Suzuki. He was only 0.050 slower than Pol’s Monster Tech 3 Yamaha after their first runs in Q1 and was on a flyer with seconds to go until he was held up by back-markers at Turn 10.

Aleix remained in second place and safely in Q2 – but he let the other riders know how he felt as he cruised past them again on his slow-down lap.

The riders in third to 15th places in Q1 occupy positions 13 to 25 on the starting grid, with Aussies Ant West (Ab Motoracing Honda) and Damian Cudlin (E-Motion Ioda ART) in 23rd and 25th respectively.

Cudlin’s problems especially are highlighted by the riders’ top speeds in Q1: Miller and Aleix Espargaro were both clocked at a tad over 335 km/h; Cudlin’s best was 314…

In FP4, where the times have no bearing on the qualifying procedure, Marquez was quickest for the third session running with a time of 1:29.245 on his Repsol Honda.

Moto2
Spaniard Alex Rins has again defied his rookie status in the Moto2 world title by taking his third pole position of the year at the 2015 Pramac Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix at Phillip Island.

Nineteen-year-old Rins (Paginas Amarillas HP 40 Kalex) displaced his countryman Axel Pons (AGR Team Kalex) from the top spot at the 15-minute mark of the 45-minute session, and that's how the pecking order at the qualifying summit remained.

Rins' best lap was 1:32.523, just shy of Tito Rabat's best-ever benchmark of 1:32.470, set in 2014.

"I have a really good pace at Phillip Island this weekend," said Rins. "The race will be hard though, and I expect Sam (Lowes) and Axel (Pons) to be really strong, and Johann (Zarco) will also be in there.  It has been a real highlight to score my third pole position of the year in Australia."

Pons (1:32.737) wasn't too far in arrears of Rins as he produced his best qualifying effort, by six spots, in an 89-race Moto2 career. In the process, Pons turned the tables on his more heralded teammate Jonas Folger, who qualified well back in 14th position.

"We have been working a lot to try different settings, but for qualifying we went back to what we had at Motegi and I found a good feeling with the front tyre," said Pons. "With such god grip I was able to push really hard and I am delighted with second spot on the grid."

Sam Lowes (Speed Up Racing, 1:32.787) completes the front row of the grid, but a massive high-side at turn six with 12 minutes remaining meant that a final charge for pole position wasn’t on the cards. Lowes was back-slammed into the tarmac during the bingle, so he'll also be a little ginger when he lines up for tomorrow's 25-lap race.

Tom Luthi (Derendinger Racing Interwetten Kalex, 1:32.884, Mika Kallio (QMMF Racing Speed Up, 1:32.957) and Takaaki Nakagami (Idemitsu Honda Asia Kalex, 1:32.968) are on row two, with new world champion Johann Zarco (Ajo Motorsport Kalex, 1:33.039) on their bumper.

Zarco, who wrapped up the world title at Motegi last Sunday, has crashed out of the last two Moto2 races at Phillip Island, so a finish will be the name of the game tomorrow — but such is the Frenchman's flair for the occasion he'll undoubtedly be pushing for his eighth victory in a stellar season.

Australia's Josh Hook (1:34.525) qualified in 24th (out of 29) on the Technomag Racing Interwetten machine vacated by the injured Dominique Aegerter, shaving about half a second off his best time in practice.

Displaced world champion Rabat will miss his second race in a row with his left wrist injury.

Moto3
Danny Kent was on pole for the Moto3 race at the 2015 Pramac Australian Grand Prix – and then he wasn’t.

Kent, on the Leopard Racing Honda, produced a sizzling lap of 1:36.180 to claim what would have been his fifth pole position of 2015 and the seventh of his career. But along with a gaggle of other riders the Englishman was penalised by Race Direction for slowing down on the racing line as he allegedly sought to find a tow and a faster time.

Worse news still: Kent is alleged to have done it twice and therefore picked up a three-place penalty for both infringements. That means he will now start from the third row – and that Scotsman John McPhee will start from his first-ever world championship pole position.

McPhee’s SaxoPrint RTG Honda set the early pace in qualifying, and the 21-year-old went faster again right at the end to post a 1:36.540. With Red Bull KTM Ajo rider Miguel Oliveira unable to do better than a 1:36.606, he will start in the middle of the front row and Kent’s team-mate Efren Vazquez finds himself promoted to the outside of the front row.

Long-time session leader Jorge Navarro (Estrella Galicia Honda, 1:36.705), Italian Romano Fenati (SKY Racing Team VR46 KTM, 1:36.822), who took his maiden pole at Motegi last week, and Belgian Livio Loi (RW Racing Honda, 1:36.942) now make up the second row.
Less negative news came for Kent when his main championship rival Enea Bastianini (Gresini Racing Honda) failed to fire in qualifying.

Bastianini will start from 28th position in tomorrow's 23-lap race — the 10th row of the grid —which means that Kent is still a raging favourite to become the first British GP champion since Barry Sheene in 1977.

Kent is currently 56pts (244 to 188) in front of Bastianini, followed by Miguel Oliveira (Red Bull KTM Ajo, 179pts) — the only other rider with a mathematical chance of becoming world champion in 2015 with three races to go.

The fastest rider in free practice, South African Brad Binder (Red Bull KTM Ajo), broke down with 16 minutes to go in qualifying, and he will start the race from the fourth row of the grid.

It was also a sticky session for two of the three Aussie riders, with Remy Gardner (CIP Mahindra) taken out at turn five early on in an incident caused by an errant Francesco Bagnaia (Mapfre Mahindra), while wildcard Matt Barton (Suus Honda) crashed at the high-speed turn one.

Gardner (1:37.644) will start from 26th position on the grid, with Barton (1:42.588) in 36th — and well inside the 110 per cent qualifying cut-off, which is a major achievement in itself after a slew of problems over the last two days.

The third Australian, Olly Simpson (KTM), will start from 35th after setting a best lap of 1:39.201.