Le Mans Qualifying Results
MotoGP 2013
www.motorcycle-usa.com By Byron Wilson
Repsol Honda’s Marc Marquez earned his second pole position of the 2013
MotoGP season at Le Mans with a blistering lap time of 1’33.187, beating out
Yamaha Factory Racing’s Jorge Lorenzo by 0.030 seconds. Ducati’s Andrea
Dovizioso joins Marquez and Lorenzo on the first row, marking the first time
yet this year a Desmosdici pilot has qualified within the top-three.
Dry, cool conditions prevailed at the French circuit and Marquez was on
fire from the morning practice session onward. The GP rookie came though as the
fastest rider in FP3 and only missed hitting the mark again in FP4 by 0.309
seconds. In qualifying, the Spaniard notched what would be his best effort of
the day on Lap 4 of nine. Lorenzo pushed hard to get the best of Marquez on his
final two qualifying laps, but was unable to make it happen.
"It was hard to heat up the tires, but that was the same for
everyone," said Marquez. "I am very happy, because I think that
we had a good session and have a good pace. Tomorrow we will try to give 100%
and see if we are fortunate enough to have a dry race."
Dovizioso put together an almost flawless lap on his final time around the
circuit in Q2, notching his best times of the day through the first three
sectors and ending with a lap nearly half-a-second faster than any he’d run
during the session.
Monster Yamaha Tech 3’s Cal Crutchlow heads up the fourth row followed by LCR
Honda MotoGP’s Stefan Bradl in fifth. Marquez’s teammate, Dani Pedrosa,
qualified in sixth after a late session fall at Turn 3 forced him to return to
the pits, which cost him valuable track time.
Go & Fun Honda Gresini’s Alvaro Bautista sits in seventh and is joined on
the third row by Lorenzo’s teammate, Valentino Rossi, and Crutchlow’s teammate,
Bradley Smith, who finished eighth and ninth respectively. Turn 3 was
also difficult for Bautista during the day, though his crash came during
FP3. Paul Bird Motorsports’ Yonny Hernandez and Avintia Blusens’ Hector Barbera
went down in the same place as well during FP3, and Barbera sustained a
fractured finger as a result of the incident.
Dovi’s teammate, Nicky Hayden, leads the fourth row which also includes top CRT
rider, Aleix Espargaro of Power Electronics Aspar in 11th and his teammate,
Randy de Puniet, in 12th.
MotoGP Le
Mans Qualifying Results 2013:
1. Marc
Marquez (Honda) 1’33.187
2. Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha) 1’33.217
3. Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati) 1’33.603
4. Cal Crutchlow (Yamaha) 1’33.609
5. Stefan Bradl (Honda) 1’33.634
6. Dani
Pedrosa (Honda) 1’33.639
7. Alvaro Bautista (Honda) 1’33.984
8. Valentino Rossi (Yamaha) 1’34.009
9. Bradley Smith (Yamaha) 1’34.222
10. Nicky Hayden (Ducati) 1’34.242
11. Aleix Espargaro (ART) 1’34.754
12. Randy de Puniet (ART) 1’35.086
13. Andrea Iannone (Ducati) 1’35.062
14. Michele Pirro (Ducati 1’35.228
15. Hector Barbera (FTR) 1’35.714
16. Danilo Petrucci (Ioda-Suter) 1’35.770
17. Colin Edwards (FTR-Kawasaki) 1’36.221
18. Karel Abraham (ART) 1’36.271
19. Claudio Corti (FTR-Kawasaki) 1’36.330
20. Michael Laverty (PBM) 1’36.596
21. Bryan Staring (FTR-Honda) 1’36.714
22. Lukas Pesek (Ioda-Suter) 1’36.768
23. Yonny Hernandez (ART) 1’36.961
24. Hiroshi Aoyama (FTR) 1’37.523
