Submitted by Mike Lewis on
Results Below
By the end of the final qualifying practice of the final race of the year, it appeared as if Marc Marquez's only competition for the championship is himself. Toward the end of the session, Marquez set a crushing lap of 1'30.237 that wasn't simply a pole record at the Valencia circuit -- it was three-tenths of a second better than Jorge Lorenzo in second place and another tenth in front of Dani Pedrosa in third. It also obliterated by half a second what has been Marquez's own lap record from earlier in the day.
Jorge Lorenzo took a bit of cold comfort from the fact that engine problems in his number one bike prevented him from closing the gap. Lorenzo was forced to pit and switch bikes during the session. He said after qualifying that the second bike didn't provide the feel of the first. But even with the feel of the first, could it have provided a third of a second? Sunday will show.
The second row will be Club Yamaha with Valentino Rossi leading the second line closely followed by Cal Crutchlow, who is leaving the Tech 3 team for Ducati come Monday That other rookie, Bradley Smith, continued his strong late-season form with a sixth-fastest time. The third row -- Alvaro Bautista, Stefan Bradl and Andrea Dovizioso -- are more than a second off the pole-setter's pace. Nickey Hayden nears the end of his time with Ducati as 10th fastest in qualifying.
Results:
| Pos. | No. | Rider | Bike | Time | Diff. / Prev. |
| 1 | 93 | Marc MARQUEZ | Honda | 1'30.237 | |
| 2 | 99 | Jorge LORENZO | Yamaha | 1'30.577 | 0.340 / 0.340 |
| 3 | 26 | Dani PEDROSA | Honda | 1'30.663 | 0.426 / 0.086 |
| 4 | 46 | Valentino ROSSI | Yamaha | 1'30.920 | 0.683 / 0.257 |
| 5 | 35 | Cal CRUTCHLOW | Yamaha | 1'31.113 | 0.876 / 0.193 |
| 6 | 38 | Bradley SMITH | Yamaha | 1'31.201 | 0.964 / 0.088 |
| 7 | 19 | Alvaro BAUTISTA | Honda | 1'31.594 | 1.357 / 0.393 |
| 8 | 6 | Stefan BRADL | Honda | 1'31.638 | 1.401 / 0.044 |
| 9 | 4 | Andrea DOVIZIOSO | Ducati | 1'31.718 | 1.481 / 0.080 |
| 10 | 69 | Nicky HAYDEN | Ducati | 1'31.870 | 1.633 / 0.152 |
| 11 | 29 | Andrea IANNONE | Ducati | 1'31.963 | 1.726 / 0.093 |
| 12 | 9 | Danilo PETRUCCI | Ioda-Suter | 1'33.116 | 2.879 / 1.153 |
| 13 | 8 | Hector BARBERA | FTR | 1'32.773 | 0.033 / 0.008 |
| 14 | 41 | Aleix ESPARGARO | ART | 1'32.807 | 0.067 / 0.034 |
| 15 | 71 | Claudio CORTI | FTR Kawasaki | 1'32.961 | 0.221 / 0.154 |
| 16 | 68 | Yonny HERNANDEZ | Ducati | 1'32.966 | 0.226 / 0.005 |
| 17 | 51 | Michele PIRRO | Ducati | 1'32.966 | 0.226 |
| 18 | 5 | Colin EDWARDS | FTR Kawasaki | 1'33.203 | 0.463 / 0.237 |
| 19 | 7 | Hiroshi AOYAMA | FTR | 1'33.328 | 0.588 / 0.125 |
| 20 | 14 | Randy DE PUNIET | ART | 1'33.869 | 1.129 / 0.541 |
| 21 | 70 | Michael LAVERTY | ART | 1'34.018 | 1.278 / 0.149 |
| 22 | 23 | Luca SCASSA | ART | 1'34.113 | 1.373 / 0.095 |
| 23 | 67 | Bryan STARING | FTR Honda | 1'34.805 | 2.065 / 0.692 |
| 24 | 50 | Damian CUDLIN | PBM | 1'34.903 | 2.163 / 0.098 |
| 25 | 52 | Lukas PESEK | Ioda-Suter | 1'34.993 | 2.253 / 0.090 |
| 26 | 45 | Martin BAUER | S&B Suter | 1'35.277 | 2.537 / 0.284 |
Comments
Is....
....MM trying to make a point?
Race tactics
It'll be interesting to see what Lorenzo and Yamaha decide on. I think it would be foolish for him to try and jump out front and get away. Although he's more than capable of doing it. It would allow Marc to cruise to the championship. IMO, his best bet is to stay behind and pass, slow the pace down until Marc passes again and then do it again. It's the only way that the field is going to stay bunched up enough to allow him to have a shot at the title. He HAS to force a mistake from Marc. The top three have been the class of the field all season barring a few races and this one is no different. So Lorenzo will have to play a different game this round if he wants a shot at the title. Should be a great race!!
Stunning?
3 tenths is a stunning gap?
A QP lap "obliterated" an FP lap by a half a second? "Obliterated" seems like an enthusiastic choice of words since that is an extremely common occurance. Three quarters to a full second is not even uncommon.
Yes, obliterated...
Obliterated doesn't denote rare in any way. It means significant. Three tenths is significant. Even more so when the mark it beat (by half a second) was itself a new record as each advancing tenth gets much tougher to come by. So yes, obliterated.
Hmmm
Oops. My understanding of the English language must be poor. I now understand that significant obliteration occurs every race weekend, and is therefore a common event. Thank you.
The ongoing lowering of the bar continues
It's a shame, but I suppose it happens everywhere, eventually. The readers comments here can still be brilliant, but you have to wade through a lot of murk to get to the good stuff.
Exactly
Think of it this way: When Randy De Puniet's manager says, "Mon Dieu! Randy has obiterated another race bike!" he is referring to the damage but, obviously, not the rarity of the event.
Lorenzo would have been much closer
Had he not had technical issues with his number 1 machine. His race pace looks brutal also. The race is going to be very interesting. Lorenzo WILL get to the front in the first or second lap, and then he's going to have to try and slow the pace so that those two don't just escape from the rest. But then you have Dani who won't want to scrap with Marquez at all and will be trying to act as a buffer to the other guys who will be desparate for a podium. Should be interesting to watch though I think the outcome is pretty much a foregone conclusion.
Tires
MM93 was riding on the edge of physics during qualifying. It will be interesting to see if he can hold those tires together riding it like that for the entire race. That was more ragged than I've ever seen him. that left hand kink corner on the back straight looks like a fantastic bend to take at speed.
I don't want to pick on this
I don't want to pick on this article, but I'd agree that 'obliterate' is a little strong, along with 'stunning' and 'crushing'.
It's not that this article is bad, but I think SquidPuppet has a point in about motorsports journalism in general. You can't look at Autosport without seeing that someone has 'scorched' or 'stormed' to pole.
Point(s) Taken
Absolutely fair points and by both Squid and Santori and worth (and least to me) discussion. I'd be inclined to say fantastic points but, you know...
Sorry
I apologize for being my usual sarcastic devils advocate. I just felt like the word was a bit potent for describing what is the norm. (The .5 QP improvement over FP time.)
Now "Stunning" is a perfectly acceptable word to describe Jorge's display of sheenanigans today. Genius attempt to bait the kid. Hats off to Marc for not being outwitted.