HONDA’S MARQUEZ CONTINUES REMARKABLE CLEAN SWEEP AT LE MANS

2014-05-18 16:09
Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda RC213V) kept his
amazing momentum going at Le Mans this afternoon,
riding to his fifth pole position from the first
five races of the season. The 21-year-old
reigning MotoGP World Champion goes into
tomorrow’s French Grand Prix with a full house
points score of 100 points from the first four
rounds and looking to extend his advantage over
team-mate Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda RC213V) who
holds second place in the points chase.

The last time a rider took pole and race victory
at the first five races was way back in 1971 when
Giacomo Agostini – the most successful rider in
history – dominated on the MV Agusta.

Marquez started out yesterday with the same
set-up he had used to win his home Grand Prix at
Jerez two weeks ago and gradually honed the
settings with his team to end the day fastest.
This morning he was a close second fastest to
Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha) and ready to up his pace
for the crucial qualifying outing, thanks largely
to improvements to corner-entry stability. As a
result, he set a new qualifying lap record.

Fourth-fastest Stefan Bradl (LCR Honda RC213V)
was less than one hundredth of a second away from
taking his second front-row start of the year,
just 0.091 seconds behind Andrea Dovizioso
(Ducati). The young German – who had post-Jerez
surgery to fix an arm-pump problem – will start
the race alongside factory Yamaha pairing
Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo who were fifth and sixth quickest.

Alvaro Bautista (Team GO&FUN Honda Gresini
RC213V) will head the third row of the grid after
qualifying seventh fastest, a mere 0.107 seconds
behind Lorenzo. The Spaniard was third fastest at
the end of day one but slipped down the order
today, struggling more than his rivals as the circuit’s grip level improved.

Pedrosa showed good pace in free practice but was
unable to up his speed for qualifying, largely
due to the surgery he underwent on his right arm
to reduce arm pump following the Spanish Grand
Prix. Ninth fastest and on the third row, he
knows he will have to focus on getting his tyres
as hot as possible on the warm-up lap so he can
attack and pass rivals in the first laps of the race.

Nicky Hayden (Drive 7 Aspar Honda RCV1000R) won
the contest to be the quickest rider on Honda’s
production MotoGP bike, the RCV1000R. Handicapped
by an old right wrist injury – which requires
painkilling injections – the former MotoGP World
Champion improved his pace today and probably
only missed out on a place in QP2 due to a small
mistake on his best lap in QP1.

MotoGP rookie Scott Redding (Team GO&FUN Honda
Gresini RCV1000R) was delighted to be the second
fastest of the four RCV1000R riders. The Briton –
who won last year’s Moto2 race at Le Mans – was
16th overall, just ahead of former 250 World
Champion Hiroshi Aoyama (Drive 7 Aspar Honda
RCV1000R) who was happy with his work today, only
spoiled by a small error on his best lap in qualifying.

Karel Abraham (Cardion AB Motoracing Honda
RCV1000R) was 18th quickest in qualifying after
finding the ideal set-up a little too late to further improve his pace.

Jonas Folger (AGR Team, Kalex) continued his
impressive adaption to the hard-fought Moto2
class, taking pole position for his fifth race in
the category. Two weeks ago the former Moto3 race
winner scored his first Moto2 podium at Jerez.

Folger’s late charge in this afternoon’s
qualifying outing dislodged points leader Tito
Rabat (Marc VDS Racing Team, Kalex) from pole by
four thousandths of a second. The Honda-powered
Moto2 pack is as tightly packed as ever, with
pole position and 20th-placed Johann Zarco
(AirAsia Caterham, Caterham Suter) separated by just 1.067 seconds.

Rabat, who scored three poles and two wins from
the first four races, had led much of the session
until he slid off at the slow-speed Garage Vert
double right. He returned to the pits where his
crew undertook repairs, but when he returned to
the track he was unable to improve his time and
slipped to second. Another former Moto3 winner,
Luis Salom (Pons HP 40, Kalex), who scored his
first Moto2 podium at last month’s Argentine GP,
was third fastest, just 0.112 seconds from pole.

Mika Kallio (Marc VDS Racing Team, Kalex), who
scored a start-to-finish victory from pole at
Jerez, missed out on another front-row start by
just less than four hundredths of a second today.
The Finn shares the second row with Thomas Luthi
(Interwetten Paddock, Suter) and Simone Corsi
(NGM Forward Racing, Forward Kalex).

Grand Prix of the Americas victor Maverick
Vinales (Pons HP 40, Kalex) heads row three in
front of Ricard Cardus (Tech 3, Tech 3) and
Sandro Cortese (Dynavolt Intact GP, Kalex).

Efren Vazquez (SaxoPrint-RTG Honda NSF250R)
scorched to his first Grand Prix pole position
this afternoon, giving Honda its second Moto3
pole position of the year. The Spaniard –
currently third in the points standings –
outpaced Jack Miller (KTM) in the final minutes,
ending up 0.025 seconds ahead of the Australian.
Alex Rins (Estrella Galicia 0,0 Honda NSF250RW)
made it two Hondas on the front row, completing
the outing 0.202 seconds behind Miller.

Alexis Masbou (Ongetta-Rivacold Honda NSF250R) is
back to form at his hone race, following a
difficult start to the season. He qualified
fourth fastest, just 0.034 seconds off the front
row, to make it three Hondas in the top four. The
Frenchman and his crew adjusted the set-up of his
NSF250R for this race, finding a new and
promising direction that gives him the confidence
to push the limits like he could last year.
Masbou had moved into second place midway through
the session, then lost the front and crashed at
the Musee left-hander. Although he didn’t improve
his lap time following the minor tumble, his
earlier time was good enough to put him fourth.

Alex Marquez (Estrella Galicia 0,0 Honda
NSF250RW) was seventh fastest and will head the
third row of the grid tomorrow, alongside fellow
NSF250R riders John McPhee (SaxoPrint-RTG Honda
NSF250R) and Zulfahmi Khairuddin (Ongetta-AirAsia Honda NSF250R).

Tomorrow’s racing is followed by the Italian GP at Mugello on June 1.


Honda MotoGP rider quotes

Marc Marquez, Repsol Honda: pole position – 1m 32.042s
“I’m very happy to be on pole and also with the
gap between myself and second place on the
timesheet. Tomorrow will be interesting as my
main rivals – Dani, Jorge and Valentino – are not
on the front row but on rows two and three.
However, I know they will be there in the battle
and we must be prepared. Starting from pole is an
advantage and I will try to capitalise from it
and give 100 per cent – as always – to fight for the win!”

Stefan Bradl, LCR Honda MotoGP: 4th – 1m 32.846s
“After yesterday’s sessions we went back to our
standard geometry that we used in the past races
because I have more front feeling. Our pace is
pretty good and I am happy about fourth place
today (also considering my recent surgery) but we
must be realistic. The other riders are very fast
too and I am starting from the second row with
two big rivals like Rossi and Lorenzo. Even
Pedrosa will push to catch the front group so our
target is to finish in the top five. This would
be a very good result for us. My arm is getting
better and today it was not necessary to have a painkilling injection.”

Alvaro Bautista, Team GO&FUN Honda Gresini: 7th – 1m 33.006s
“Yesterday we started the weekend very well and
also today my feeling with the bike has improved
further, but the other riders were able to
progress more than we did. As usual, when the
grip on the track improves, as happened today, we
struggle a bit more than other riders. However,
apart from Marquez who was really fast, we are
not far from the second position: the gap is less
than three tenths of a second and that means that
we are all very close. Our situation is
undoubtedly better compared to Jerez, so tomorrow
we’ll try to get a good start, then we will do
our race with the usual goal: cross the finish
line collecting as many points as possible”.

Dani Pedrosa, Repsol Honda: 9th – 1m 33.023s
“Free practice wasn’t too bad for us, but in
qualifying we weren’t so great. I’m riding a
little smoother this weekend and not so
aggressive, due to my injured forearm, and when I
wanted to push to improve my times I wasn’t
really able to. I think that in general we have
done a good job in practice and I will try to get
a good start tomorrow, because I am very far
back. It will be important to bring the tyre
temperature up on the warm-up lap and try to
overtake some riders in the opening laps.”

Nicky Hayden, Drive 7 Aspar Honda: 13th – 1m 33.859s
“To be honest my wrist is still very painful but
I tried to give my best in qualifying. I want to
thank all the staff at the Clinica Mobile for the
work they are doing to limit the pain. We have
improved the set-up of the bike today but
unfortunately not as much as we had hoped. We
lost some valuable time working on one of the
bikes trying to fix something that we still need
to get to the bottom of. Anyway, the lap time in
qualifying was good. I made a little mistake in
the chicane that possibly cost me a place in Q2,
which is a shame because the extra track time
would have been useful to test one more tyre
option for the race. It will be a tough race
tomorrow but we are ready to fight for the best possible result.”

Scott Redding, Team GO&FUN Honda Gresini: 16th – 1m 32.233s
“Until today we have always been the third or
fourth Open Class Honda, so it’s good to be again
the second fastest Honda RCV1000R during FP4 and
qualifying. I’m feeling a lot better, we changed
a lot on the bike to give me back some feeling,
and as a result I started to enjoy myself again.
This morning I didn’t feel comfortable on the
bike, but in the end we solved our problems. Now
we have to see if we can make more improvements
tomorrow morning, especially from my side,
because now the bike is pretty good.”

Hiroshi Aoyama, Drive 7 Aspar Honda: 17th – 1m 34.457s
“We improved the handling of the bike in the slow
corners today. We worked hard and the outcome was
very productive, which we can see in the lap
times. In qualifying when we put the soft tyre in
to push for a fast time I made a little mistake
in the chicane on what was my best lap. It is a
shame but we have to be satisfied that our
performance has improved and we are quite well
prepared for the race. I think we have a
consistent rhythm, even on the hard tyre and I
hope we can have a good race tomorrow.”

Karel Abraham, Cardion AB Motoracing: 18th – 1m 34.880s
“The good news is that the bike worked quite well
in qualifying. This set-up is certainly the best
we’ve tried during the weekend and I’m pretty
sure that if we had it earlier, we would be
faster now. I’m little bit angry that I missed
the chance to do one more fast lap. Unfortunately
I saw the flag only some seconds before I passed
the start line. The important thing is that
tomorrow I’ll stay close to the other Open Honda
riders and fight for some points.”


Moto2 rider quotes

Jonas Folger, AGR Team: pole position – 1m 37.619s
“I feel really good with my bike at the moment.
We struggled a bit at the beginning of the
weekend because this track is so different to the
others we’ve already been to this year. But at
the very end we found something with the set-up
and I could make a really good lap time, so I
think we can be quite strong in the race.”

Tito Rabat, Marc VDS Racing Team: 2nd – 1m 37.623s
“I’m very happy. This morning went well and the
first part of qualifying went well. In the second
part I made a mistake after fitting a new rear
tyre. I pushed too hard on the brakes into Garage
Vert and slid off, which broke the rear brake.
The mechanics repaired the brake in the pits but
it didn’t feel quite the same when I went back on
track, so I couldn’t improve my lap time. We will
try to have a good warm-up, find the feeling again and have a good race.”

Luis Salom, Pons HP 40: 3rd – 1m 37.731s
“I think we’ve made a good job so far here and I
think we can have a good race, but it will be
difficult, like it always is at Le Mans.
Yesterday went well, then this morning we changed
something that I didn’t like and that cost me
some rhythm. So we went back to the previous
set-up for qualifying and I stayed on the track
all session, only stopping once, because I wanted to concentrate on my rhythm.”


Honda Moto3 rider quotes

Efren Vazquez, SaxoPrint-RTG: pole position – 1m 42.491s
“I am a little surprised by this pole, even if I
have always believed in this team and in the
Honda Moto3 project. We have a good package and a
good performance, so we are always up front at
the moment. I’m happy and I hope we can continue
like this. To think about winning the race
tomorrow is difficult, because this is an unusual
track where it’s difficult to overtake. We have a
good rhythm, so we will need to be clever on the
front lap, keep calm and see what happens in the last few laps.”

Alex Rins, Estrella Galicia 0,0: 3rd – 1m 42.718s
“As I said yesterday, I’m starting to enjoy
myself on the bike and I’m having fun. This gives
me peace of mind, not having to always go to the
limit, and I’m happy with the pace we are doing.
Through all this we managed to make it to the
front row once again. I believe that every time
we go to the track I try to get better and from
FP1 here we’ve managed to refine the set-up for
the race. I feel more comfortable, but also I’ve
had to change my style compared to last year, so
we are slowly improving with every kilometre.”

Alexis Masbou, Ongetta-Rivacold: 4th – 1m 42.752s
“I’m happy. Our level wasn’t so high at the first
four races, so we were a little afraid to come
here. But we’ve done a good job all practice, so
now I have feel, confidence and a good pace.
Before this weekend we were a little stuck with
last year’s settings – this year’s bike is
similar to last year’s but there are many little
things that are different, so we’ve had to find a
new way. Now we need to fight for the podium tomorrow…”

Source: Honda Pro Image

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