Marquez storms to pole at Silverstone

Marc Marquez

Points leader and defending MotoGP champion Marc Marquez stormed to pole position for the MotoGP British Grand Prix at Silverstone, beating Valentino Rossi by over 4/10ths of a second.

Marquez turned a lap at 1m58.168s on his Honda, 0.428 seconds faster than Rossi's Yamaha.

Times were tumbling from early in the day as the Silverstone circuit record was improved on continuously throughout the day. The bar was provisionally set during Free Practice 3 when Marc Marquez was one of three riders to enter the 1’58s – over a second faster than the record from 2017.

Immediately in the 1’58s from his first flying lap of Q2, Marc Marquez left it late to set his fastest time as he secured pole with a 1’58.168 and set a new outright lap record around the Silverstone circuit. The record-breaking lap is his 60th pole position in the premier class on what is his 120th premier class start. This is also the World Championship leader’s eighth pole of the 2019 season and his fourth pole in a row.

Jack Miller went third on his Pramac Ducati, with Fabio Quartararo in fourth.

Quartararo will be joined on the second row by Suzuki rider Alex Rins and the second factory Yamaha of Maverick Vinales.

Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati) will start seventh ahead of the second Petronas Yamaha of Franco Morbidelli and Cal Crutchlow, who crashed his LCR Honda at Stowe.

Marc Marquez 1ST 1’58.168

“With the first tire I felt really, really good and I just tried to find a good lap and I did my first lap alone. When we went out with the second tire there was a fair bit of traffic, I was on top in the results so I did not want to push first. We were then waiting a bit and playing with our strategy and then on the last lap the tires were ready and we made a really good lap. Valentino was ahead, maybe a little too far because I couldn’t profit fully from the slipstream. I think we can be strong in the race tomorrow, but for sure there are many rivals for tomorrow."

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