Yamaha rider Pol Espagaro nursing an injured left ankle after a big crash in practice on Saturday.
MARC Marquez set a new premier class record when he took his 13th MotoGP pole of the year for Sunday’s Malaysian motorcycle grand prix at the Sepang Internationl Circuit.
Repsol Honda team-mate Dani Pedrosa and Movistar Yamaha’s Jorge Lorenzo qualified second and third respectively for an all-Spanish front row.
Marquez set a record-breaking time of one minute 59.791 seconds to secure the prime starting position on the grid ahead of Pedrosa who was 0.182s slower. Lorenzo clocked 2min 0.203sec.
Marquez is the first rider below the 2’00 mark on a race weekend at Sepang. This also marks his 50th career pole.
Stefan Bradl (LCR Honda MotoGP) and Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team) both qualified on the second row of the grid, both within a second of Marquez’ blistering lap.
Valentino Rossi (Movistar Yamaha) winner last weekend in Australia, Aleix Espargaro (NGM Forward Racing), Cal Crutchlow (Ducati Team), Bradley Smith (Monster Yamaha Tech 3) and Alvaro Bautista (GO&FUN Honda Gresini) completed the top ten.
Pol Espargaro (Monster Yamaha Tech3) missed out on qualifying after a big crash in free practice on Saturday morning left him with a broken bone in his left foot. His fitness to race will be assessed on Sunday morning.
Andrea Iannone (Pramac Racing Ducati) was declared unfit to participate further in the grand prix due to left arm injuries after his Friday crash left him struggling for strength and power.
MOTO2
Tito Rabat starts from pole in Moto2™ in Sunday’s Malaysian motorcycle grand prix, looking to clinch the title, with Finn Mika Kallio and Spain’s Sandro Cortese completing the front row.
A time of 2min 07.429sec put Rabat (Marc VDS Racing Team) on pole ahead of title rival and teammate Kallio, who was just 0.158s slower. The front row was completed by Cortese (Dynavolt Intact GP), who was 0.277s behind Rabat.
It was a dominant pole performance for the championship leader, never leaving the top spot on the time sheets. This is Rabat’s 10th pole position of the season.
A top two finish by Kallio is the only way for him to postpone the title decider to the final round in Valencia and even then the Finn would be relying on Rabat’s result, with 41 points between them and two races to go.
The top five was completed by impressive rookie Maverick Viñales (Paginas Amarillas HP 40) and the resurgent Thomas Luthi (Interwetten Sitag), who both finished on the podium last time out at Phillip Island. Takaaki Nakagami (IDEMITSU Honda Team Asia) is also on row two.
Julian Simon (Italtrans Racing Team), Johann Zarco (AirAsia Caterham), Dominique Aegerter (Technomag CarXpert) and Axel Pons (AGR Team) completed the top ten, all within 0.715s of pole. The top 17 were split by just one second.
Mattia Pasini (NGM Forward Racing) had a strange front end crash at Turn 1 early in the session. Lorenzo Baldassarri (Gresini Moto2) and Ricky Cardus (Tech 3) also suffered small offs. Thitipong Warokorn (APH PTT The Pizza SAG) slid off at Turn 15 in the second half of the session. All riders were unhurt.
Malaysia’s Hafizh Syahrin was 18th fastest while fellow countryman Azlan Shah will start from the 10th row after qualifying 29th.
MOTO3
Australian grand prix winner Jack Miller will bid to keep the Moto3 title fight alive from pole position for the Malaysian grand prix.
The Australian joined by Britain’s John McPhee and Czech Jakub Kornfeil on the front row.
A stunning lap of 2min 12.450sec saw Miller (Red Bull KTM Ajo) claim his eighth pole of the year ahead of McPhee (SaxoPrint-RTG). The Scottish rider was 0.459s off pole. Kornfeil (Calvo Team) completed the front row and was 0.566s from Miller. Miller’s lap was almost 1.5 seconds faster than Luis Salom’s previous pole record from last year.
Efren Vazquez (SaxoPrint-RTG) and Alex Marquez (Estrella Falicia 0,0) completed the top five, despite Marquez falling. Marquez goes into the race with his first chance of wrapping up the 2014 Moto3™ World Championship title.
Romano Fenati (SKY Racing Team VR46), Danny Kent (Red Bull Husqvarna Ajo), Isaac Viñales (Calvo Team), Miguel Oliveira (Mahindra Racing) and rookie Enea Bastianini (Junior Team GO&FUN) completed the top ten.
Alex Rins (Estrella Falicia 0,0) starts from 17th, 1.994s slower than Miller.
Niccolo Antonelli (Junior Team GO&FUN Gresini) had technical problems early in the session, limiting his track time. Local hero Zulfahmi Khairuddin (Ongetta-AirAsia) was the first faller of the session and will start from 22 on the grid. Scott Deroue (RW Racing GP) fell soon after.
Jasper Iwema (CIP) fell at Turn 6 as the session approached the midway stage. The final five minutes saw Marquez fall at Turn 6, ending his session early. Kent and Juanfran Guevara (Mapfre Aspar Team Moto3) collided on their second last laps. All riders were unhurt.
Hafiq Azmi was the best of the Malaysians, qualifying 16th, and wildcard compatriots Ramdan Rosli and Hafiza Rofa qualified 21st and 31st respectively.