Dani Pedrosa, who had been leading the entire weekend, has taken Pole despite the strong pace of his team mate Márquez, who has finished second. In third position has qualifyied Crutchlow.
Q1 started with riders like Andrea Dovizioso, Andrea Iannone or Aleix Espargaró as the main candidates to advance to Q2. Before going into the track, Sam Lowes’ Aprilia stopped at the end of Pit Lane and British driver had to come back to his box.
Iannone and Aleix Espargaró were the first ones to set a 1:39 time. But riders such as Dovizioso, Álvaro Bautista or Pol Espargaró joined them quickly. With one minute to go, Aleix Espargaró set a 1:38.942 that was quicly improved by a 1:38.919 set by Iannone. Nothing changed until the end and Iannone and Aleix Espargaró advanced to Q2. KTM performed really well and got 15th and 16th places.
The definitive assault of the fight for Pole Position began and Jorge Lorenzo was the first driver on track. After the first attempt, Marc Márquez was leading with his team-mate Dani Pedrosa only 0.033 seconds behind him.
On the second attempt, Aleix Espargaró crashed. Cal Crutchlow improved to third place. However, Pedrosa improved and took provisional Pole Position. On the last lap, nobody but Márquez were improving, but he didn’t achieve to beat Pedrosa.
Pedrosa took then his first Pole since Malaysia 2015 with Márquez second and Crutchlow third, which means that Top 3 riders are Honda. Maverick Viñales qualifyied fourth with championship leader Valentino Rossi seventh. Race is set to be held tomorrow at 2PM local time.
