Marquez storms to fifth Argentina GP pole

Marc Marquez

A flying Marc Marquez proved unstoppable in Argentina as he powered to pole – the reigning World Champion topping second place Maverick Vinales (Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP) by 0.154 and Championship leader Andrea Dovizioso (Mission Winnow Ducati) by 0.164.

Valentino Rossi will launch from P4, ten places higher than where he started in Qatar, with last season’s pole man Miller completing a top five covered by just 0.244.

Saturday’s proceedings at the Argentina GP opened with the always-exciting Free Practice 3 session. Marc Marquez was fast from his first lap and quickly moved to top the session and became the first rider to set a 1’38. The final ten minutes of the session saw the customary time-attack for passage to Q2.

[adinserter name="GOOGLE AD"]Despite early fears, the weather held for qualifying and an ambient temperature of 27Â°C and track temperature of 39Â°C helped produce a riveting Q2 session. Marc Marquez continued to show impressive speed aboard his Honda RC213V and claimed his fifth pole position at the sixth running of the Argentina GP with a lap of 1’38.304. The reigning champion is confident in his race pace, but knows he will have to wait and see what weather Sunday brings.

Franco Morbidelli (Petronas Yamaha SRT) will start from his best MotoGP™ qualifying position in sixth, with teammate Fabio Quartararo continuing to impress in seventh – just 0.011 splitting the YZR-M1 duo. Crutchlow, who won from P10 on the grid last season, will start from eighth as he aims for the podium on Sunday, with the British rider joined on the third row by teammate Takaaki Nakagami (LCR Honda Castrol) – the Japanese rider 0.734 from pole in P9 after graduating from Q1.

Marquez in a 2-wheel drift

Danilo Petrucci (Mission Winnow Ducati) completes a top ten covered by 0.789 at Termas de Rio Hondo, with Pol Espargaro (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing) starting from P11 after Lorenzo’s fastest lap was chalked off due to exceeding track limits – the five-time World Champion will start from 12th.

At over 120 kilometers long, Sunday’s Argentina GP is amongst the longest on the calendar. Lights go out on the 25-lap race at 15:00 local time.

Marc Marquez 93
1ST 1’38.304
“In Qualifying I was really focused to push to the maximum and fight for pole position. On the second tire I made a small mistake at the first corner so I cancelled the lap and went back in. We had planned to do three runs and my team was ready. I am happy because it’s never easy to get pole position here, especially this weekend. Our rhythm is there but we need to wait and see what the weather does!"

Lineup

Pos.	Rider	Num	Nation	Team	Constructor	Time/Gap
1	Marquez Marc	93	SPA	Repsol Honda Team	Honda	1'38.304
2	Vinales Maverick	12	SPA	Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP	Yamaha	0.154
3	Dovizioso Andrea	4	ITA	Mission Winnow Ducati	Ducati	0.164
4	Rossi Valentino	46	ITA	Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP	Yamaha	0.241
5	Miller Jack	43	AUS	Pramac Racing	Ducati	0.244
6	Morbidelli Franco	21	ITA	Petronas Yamaha SRT	Yamaha	0.582
7	Quartararo Fabio	20	FRA	Petronas Yamaha SRT	Yamaha	0.593
8	Crutchlow Cal	35	GBR	LCR Honda	Honda	0.651
9	Nakagami Takaaki	30	JPN	LCR Honda	Honda	0.734
10	Petrucci Danilo	9	ITA	Mission Winnow Ducati	Ducati	0.789
11	Espargaro Pol	44	SPA	Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	KTM	1.185
12	Lorenzo Jorge	99	SPA	Repsol Honda Team	Honda	1.216
13	Espargaro Aleix	41	SPA	Aprilia Racing Team Gresini	Aprilia	1'39.288 Q1
14	Oliveira Miguel	88	POR	Red Bull KTM Tech 3	KTM	0.234
15	Abraham Karel	17	CZE	Reale Avintia Racing	Ducati	0.267
16	Rins Alex	42	SPA	Team Suzuki Ecstar	Suzuki	0.320
17	Bagnaia Francesco	63	ITA	Pramac Racing	Ducati	0.323
18	Zarco Johann	5	FRA	Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	KTM	0.507
19	Mir Joan	36	SPA	Team Suzuki Ecstar	Suzuki	0.541
20	Rabat Tito	53	SPA	Reale Avintia Racing	Ducati	0.914
21	Syahrin Hafizh	55	MAL	Red Bull KTM Tech 3	KTM	0.989
22	Iannone Andrea	29	ITA	Aprilia Racing Team Gresini	Aprilia	1.054