The big news at the start of Saturday was that Jorge Lorenzo withdrew from Round 15, following the vicious beating dished out by his malfunctioning Ducati in Free Practice on Friday. As the show went on, world championship leader, Marc Marquez gave himself extra work after a crash at Chang International’s fast Turn 4 in FP3 put him into Qualifying 1.
Predictably, the Repsol Honda prodigy made short work of going through to Qualifying 2, recording a lap of 1:30.031, which was nine tenths better than next best man, Alex Rins, on the Ecstar Suzuki.
Andrea Dovisioso spent the first half of Qualifying 2 at the top of the timing screens. Then, coming out on fresh rubber, first Marquez, then Valentino Rossi pushed the factory Ducati back to third, before the veteran Yamaha rider put down a best lap of 1:30.099 to take provisional pole position. As cheers rose from the packed grandstands and the finish line marshals unfurled their chequered flags, Marquez responded with a 1:30.088, to put his Italian to the middle of the front row. For Rossi, the improvement from qualifying 18th last time out at Aragon was enough to spark a one wheeled celebration around the 4.55 kilometre track to the delight of the crowds. Behind them, Dovisioso’s best lap of 1:30.227 just held of Maverick Vinales, Cal Crutchlow, Andrea Ianonne, Dani Pedrosa and Johann Zarco, who, in eighth place, was less than 0.4s behind Marquez. Danilo Petrucci, Jack Miller, Alex Rins and Alvaro Bautista completed the top twelve and therefore the first four rows of the grid for tomorrow’s race.
The battle for rookie honours continued between Italy’s Franco Morbidelli, Japan’s Takaaki Nakagami and Malaysia’s Hafizh Syahrin, who this time finished 13th, 14th and 18th respectively. Scott Redding, who this week announced he will compete in British Superbike for Paul Bird, and yesterday battered his right foot in a Turn 4 tumble, was the 23rd and last qualifier, with a time of 1:31.835.
Looking ahead to the race, it is as difficult as ever to rule out another win by Marquez, though it is worth noting that Dovisioso had the best pace of the day, a likely race day ace up the sleeve of Valentino Rossi, the grit of Cal Crutchlow, a resurgent Vinales the form of Andrea Iannone and the fact that a podium finish is well overdue for Dani Pedrosa. The fact that Lorenzo will be watching from an armchair is unfortunate, but unlikely to rob much from the competitive spectacle.
