MotoGP

Movistar Yamaha’s Lorenzo produced an incredible display of riding to take his 33rd MotoGP™ pole position in perfect conditions at the Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli to set a 1’32.146. The Spaniard obliterated Marquez’s 2013 Pole Record (1’32.915) by almost eight-tenths of a second as he set the fastest ever lap by a MotoGP™ bike around the 4.2km track on the Adriatic coast.

Lorenzo utilised two stops to allow him to put in three runs on fresh slicks. He set his fastest time on his second run, and looked on for a 1’31 on his third before he was hampered by his teammate Rossi riding slowly on the racing line. Lorenzo – who has never finished off the podium at Misano – showed complete domination on Saturday by topping FP3 & FP4 before going on to take his 59th career pole.

Repsol Honda’s Marquez had been the main threat to Lorenzo over the course of the weekend, topping FP1 and finishing in second behind his compatriot in every other session. Marquez also made two stops and set his best time on his third run but still found himself 0.106s behind Lorenzo and will start from the middle of the front row.

Movistar Yamaha’s Rossi only went for a one-stop strategy but it paid off for the nine-time World Champion as he managed to improve his time from practice by over four-tenths to claim only his third front row start of the season. Rossi was just 0.212s behind Lorenzo as he looks to defend his 12-point lead in the standings over his teammate and take back-to-back wins at his home grand prix. He had earlier tried the aerodynamic ‘winglets’ in FP4 that Lorenzo debuted on Friday, but neither Yamaha rider used them during qualifying.

Repsol Honda’s Dani Pedrosa (+0.288s) will start from the front of the second row as the Spaniard aims to make it three podiums in a row at Misano in Sunday’s race. He finished ahead of the Ducati Test Team rider of Michele Pirro (+0.590s) who will start as the leading Ducati in fifth despite a crash earlier in FP4.

Monster Yamaha Tech 3’s Bradley Smith (+0.655s) will start as the leading Satellite rider in sixth as he looks to make it 19 points scoring finishes in a row. Ducati Team’s Andrea Iannone will start from the front of the third row ahead of his teammate Andrea Dovizioso in eighth.

Octo Pramac Racing’s Danilo Petrucci made the most of his upgrade to the Desmosedici GP14.2 this weekend to complete the third row. Aleix Espargaro (Team Suzuki Ecstar) and Cal Crutchlow (LCR Honda) had earlier made it through from Q1 and will start in 10th and 11th respectively. Pol Espargaro (Monster Yamaha Tech 3) will have to start from 12th after he crashed at turn 9 ending his session after just two laps.

EG 0,0 Marc VDS’s Scott Redding well start from 13th after failing to make it through from Q1 by just 0.194s, while Loris Baz (Forward Racing) is the leading open class rider in 16th. Australian Jack Miller (LCR Honda) will start from the front of the sixth row in 16th, while Aspar MotoGP Team riders Eugene Laverty and Nicky Hayden are in 21st and 23rd respectively.

 

Moto2

Ajo Motorsport’s Johann Zarco left it late to deny Alex Rins pole position by just two-thousandths of second at the GP TIM di San Marino e della Riviera di Rimini. The Frenchman took almost a second off Pol Espargaro’s 2013 Pole Record (1’37.666) to set a 1’32.754 with 4 minutes left, the fastest ever time by a Moto2™ bike around the Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli.

Paginas Amarillas Rins had been on top of the timesheets for most of the session but had to settle for second behind Zarco as he starts from the front row for the sixth time this season. EG 0,0 Marc VDS’s Rabat (+0.100s) was third fastest as he claimed his 11th front row start of 2015 after the reigning Moto2™ World Champion had earlier topped FP3.

Forward Racing’s Simone Corsi (+0.367s) heads up the second row in his best qualifying performance since Assen. Dominique Aegerter (+0.418s) on the Technomag Racing Interwetten will start from fifth with Petronas Raceline Malaysia’s Hafizh Syahrin (+0.466s) producing his career best Moto2™ qualifying result to complete the second row.

Speed Up Racing’s Sam Lowes heads the third row ahead of Takaaki Nakagami (Idemitsu Honda Team Asia) and Jonas Folger (AGR Team), while Julian Simon (QMMF) completes the top ten.

Axel Pons (AGR Team) crashed for the third time on Saturday as he hit the deck at turn 10. There was an incredible incident for wildcard Xavi Vierge (Tech 3) as he crashed coming out of turn 7 and his rider-less bike veered across track twice, luckily missing other riders on track before hitting the barriers.

 

Moto3

Gresini Racing Team Moto3’s Bastianini set a 1’42.486 in a qualifying session that saw times slower than in FP3 at the Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli. Despite this, Bastianini’s time was good enough to beat Jonas Folger’s 2013 Pole Record by almost three-tenths of a second to claim his first pole position since Assen.

Red Bull KTM Ajo’s Brad Binder seems to have gelled brilliantly with the new chassis and swingarm KTM brought to Misano for all of its teams as he starts from the front row for the first time in his career. The South African was just 0.037s off pole as a number of riders saw lap times cancelled due to running wide at turn 6.

Leopard Racing’s Danny Kent (+0.296s) completes the front row after leaving it late to make his move. The championship leader was down in 14th with just 6 minutes to go, but recovered brilliantly to set his best time on his last lap, although it was over half a second slower than the lap record he set in FP3.

Ongetta-Rivacold’s Niccolo Antonelli (+0.326s) heads up the second row ahead of Romano Fenati (+0.497s) on the Sky Racing Team VR46 KTM in fifth. Red Bull KTM Ajo’s Miguel Oliveira (+0.522s) was in sixth with Kent’s teammate Efren Vazquez setting a time good enough for seventh despite crashing out of the session with 15 minutes to go.

Lorenzo Dalla Porta (Husqvarna Factory Laglisse) pulled off his best ever qualifying performance to start the race from eighth in just his third Moto3™ race. Phillip Oettl (Schedl GP Racing) and Hiroki Ono (Leopard Racing) completed the top ten with less than a second separating the top 15 riders.

Scotsman John McPhee had his worst Qualifying of the season and will start the race from 26th. Andrea Locatelli (Gresini Racing Team Moto3) crashed out of the season at turn 10 and will be assessed in the morning after scans revealed he had a sacral fracture. Estrella Galicia 0,0 riders Jorge Navarro and Fabio Quartararo were both ruled unfit after crashes on Friday and will take no further part in the race weekend.

After the session Race Direction decided to give both Hiroki Ono and Jorge Martin (Mapfre Team Mahindra) a penalty of three grid places and they will be forced to miss 10 minutes of Warm Up for riding slow on the racing line. Jakub Kornfeil (Drive M7 SIC) had his qualifying session cancelled after a technical infringement and will have to start from the back of the grid.

 

Source: motogp.com