2014 COTA MotoGP QP Result: A Task As Big As Texas

Submitted by Mike Lewis on

Results Below:

 

Not content to win last year and dominate every practice session this weekend, Marc Marquez seized both the lap record and the pole position Saturday at the Circuit of the Americas near Austin.

Marquez record put him nearly three-tenths of a second clear of teammate Dani Pedrosa and again made Sunday's MotoGP sppear as a contest for second. Stefan Bradl, another two-tenths back, completed the all-Honda front row.

But for as strong as Marquez appears, his rivals now see a glimmer of hope. Not only did Pedrosa and Bradl close the gap -- Marquez had been running at least a full second faster than everyone  else -- so did the all-Yamaha second row.

The open class Yamaha of Aleix Espargaro escaped the first qualifying session to lead the Yamaha row at 2'04.467 in Q2. Jorge Lorenzo (4th) and Valentino Rossi (5th) are only a few hundredths short of Espargaro and four-tenths of a second down on Marquez -- the narrowest gap for all the riders this weekend.

Cal Crutchlow finished qualifying as the top Ducati, barely clipping Bradley Smith (8th) in the process. Both Andreas, Iannone (9th) and Dovizioso (10th), didn't maintain the pace they had shown in practice and dropped to the bottom of the top 10. Pol Espargaro (11th) and Alvaro Bautista (12th) were the final riders to stay in the 2'03s.

Indeed, riders two through 12 were in the 2'03s. Only one rider managed to drop into the 2'02s and he did it three times in the session, with his final lap breaking his own record. In all, Marques has earned pole position 11 times in his 20-race MotoGP career (including COTA, 2014).

Results:

Pos. No. Rider Bike Time Diff. / Prev.
1 93 Marc MARQUEZ Honda 2'02.773  
2 26 Dani PEDROSA Honda 2'03.062 0.289 / 0.289
3 6 Stefan BRADL Honda 2'03.196 0.423 / 0.134
4 41 Aleix ESPARGARO Forward Yamaha 2'03.240 0.467 / 0.044
5 99 Jorge LORENZO Yamaha 2'03.243 0.470 / 0.003
6 46 Valentino ROSSI Yamaha 2'03.244 0.471 / 0.001
7 35 Cal CRUTCHLOW Ducati 2'03.780 1.007 / 0.536
8 38 Bradley SMITH Yamaha 2'03.800 1.027 / 0.020
9 29 Andrea IANNONE Ducati 2'03.842 1.069 / 0.042
10 4 Andrea DOVIZIOSO Ducati 2'03.846 1.073 / 0.004
11 44 Pol ESPARGARO Yamaha 2'03.913 1.140 / 0.067
12 19 Alvaro BAUTISTA Honda 2'03.923 1.150 / 0.010
13 45 Scott REDDING Honda 2'04.617 0.177 / 0.074
14 69 Nicky HAYDEN Honda 2'05.062 0.622 / 0.445
15 68 Yonny HERNANDEZ Ducati 2'05.677 1.237 / 0.615
16 7 Hiroshi AOYAMA Honda 2'05.788 1.348 / 0.111
17 17 Karel ABRAHAM Honda 2'06.239 1.799 / 0.451
18 8 Hector BARBERA Avintia 2'06.270 1.830 / 0.031
19 5 Colin EDWARDS Forward Yamaha 2'06.741 2.301 / 0.471
20 70 Michael LAVERTY PBM 2'06.939 2.499 / 0.198
21 23 Broc PARKES PBM 2'07.403 2.963 / 0.464
22 9 Danilo PETRUCCI ART 2'07.745 3.305 / 0.342
23 63 Mike DI MEGLIO Avintia 2'07.761 3.321 / 0.016

 

Round Number: 
2
2014
MotoGP
Austin, Texas
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Comments

spokes100 replied on

As pointed out in the article, the first 6 riders are within four tenths of a second of each other! Marquez could win every race this year but if his rivals continue to time this close to him it's unlikely. After the first race I wondered what they could do for an encore. I'm not wondering anymore, I'm just watching!

cycomiko replied on

Phenomenal.

But man... look how tight that second row is..

U-WUS replied on

Admittedly at 0,74 back from his team mate, but only one place below him? I thought it must be some mistake. That's an impressive performance from Scott, especially given how important power is at CotA.