Australian Grand Prix Qualifying - Rider Quotes
- Oct 17, 2015
- 5 min read
Pole position for tomorrow's twenty-seven-lap Pramac Australian Grand Prix has been decided and it will be Repsol Honda's Marc Marquez who'll lead the pack away at lights out.
The Spaniard took pole with a stunning lap of 1:28.364 on his final tour of the 4.4km Phillip Island circuit, going four tenths clear of the rest. Add to this a strong race pace in FP4, in which Marquez set nine laps in the 1:29s bracket, and you've got the favourite to take to the top step of the rostrum tomorrow afternoon.
Andrea Iannone and Jorge Lorenzo line up next to the Honda having set identical times on their final laps, to which the Yamaha rider and championship protagonist was not best pleased about. What will have put a smile on Lorenzo's face is his team-mate's starting position. Valentino Rossi rescinded into his old Saturday ways and was a lowly 7th. His race pace is similar to that of Lorenzo's however, with the Spaniard just a fraction or two quicker, so all is not lost for the Doctor.
But it sure as hell won't be easy for him to make up lost ground. Cal Crutchlow and Dani Pedrosa, both on the RC213V, which has been performing well despite rear grip issues, will offer a fierce resistance as they gun for glory without cause for concern over the title. This makes them, and Marquez, valuable assets, and indeed, result destroyers to both Yamaha riders. So now the start becomes even more important than usual, seeing as there is a Ducati up front that is renowned for bullet-like launches. This will 100% be of disadvantage to Lorenzo as Iannone is a good chum of Rossi's and, I'm sure if asked, would help his buddy out.
Make sure you are up well before 06:00 to see this tasty race unfold, it'll be worth the early rise.
Elsewhere, Suzuki performed well with the soft rear slick in 6th and 8th, Vinales in front of Espargaro, whilst Bradley Smith suffered a crap day down under after a crash in FP4 and a disappointing 12th on the grid. Jack Miller was gutted to miss out on QP2 and will start 15th, but should be able to give the home crowd something to shout about from there.
So lets take a look at what some of the riders had to say about their qualifying and prospects for the race.
Marc Marquez, Repsol Honda Team: 1st, 1:28.364
“I am pleased with how the day went, and of course with the pole position! Thanks to the team for all their work, we have a good pace for tomorrow and we are ready to fight for the podium and hopefully the victory tomorrow. However we must wait and see what happens, because here every day is different; it can be sunny but then all of a sudden clouds can appear, and the key will be interpreting how the track conditions are, in order to have a good race.”
It's an interesting point Marc raises regarding the “sudden clouds” - last year, from lights out to the chequered flag, the ambient and track temperature dropped 10 degrees!
Dani Pedrosa, Repsol Honda Team: 4th, 1:28.712
“Today was a difficult day, especially in the morning. It was quite cold and very windy, and I had problems in FP3, which did not go well. FP4 went somewhat better, although my pace was still not amongst the fastest. However, in the qualifying session we managed to improve a lot, finally setting a good lap time and qualifying well.”
Jorge Lorenzo, Movistar Yamaha MotoGP: 3rd, 1:28.680
“I was a little bit angry after qualifying, because my real position was second place if I could have been on the track alone, but with my tow Iannone was very fast and the Ducati's soft tyre for sure helped him to improve two or three tenths of a second and take second away from me. This is very important because usually I start better than Marquez, but my starts are the same or maybe even a bit worse than Iannone's so this will make the first lap more difficult. We will have to be patient and know that the race is very long. Little by little I will work my way to the front and fight with Marquez for victory, that's my goal. I'm happy with my last three fast laps, but not so much with the position, but it's not so bad in the bigger perspective, because Vale is on the third row.”
Valentino Rossi, Movistar Yamaha MotoGP: 7th, 1:29.014
“Starting from third row is always difficult and we expected a little bit more. During today we tried some different things to improve our speed, but we haven't found a good solution. I remain consistent with my lap times, but they are not fast enough, so at the end we arrived at qualifying not being ready. I was able to do a lap that was not so bad, but it wasn't enough to start more in front. Bridgestone is worried about this track, especially considering the past, but the grip of the new asphalt is less, so everybody's wheels spin a lot. For this reason I think that the life of the tyre is not the problem, but it's more important to find the right balance of the bike to reduce wheel spin.”
Cal Crutchlow, LCR Honda: 5th, 1:28.912
“I'm a little disappointed with today's final result in qualifying, I felt I could have made a better job of it. Unfortunately I made two silly mistakes on my lap and I think it cost me a front row position. It was my own fault though. The team have worked really hard today, but we really need to ficus now on getting more grip for the bike tomorrow because again in the fourth free practice we struggled with the rear tyre. We all look forward to tomorrow's race and I will try and battle as hard as possible to pick up a good result.”
Jack Miller, LCR Honda: 15th, 1:30.104
“I'm really happy to be racing tomorrow at Phillip Island, in front of my home fans. Qualifying didn't quite go as we would have liked, but I'm still looking forward to the race. I'm starting from the fifth row of the grid, so I expect it to be an interesting race, that's for sure! We'll be putting in a lot of work this evening to get the bike a little closer to where we want it to be, especially for the second half of the race. We will see how it all goes.”
Andrea Iannone, Ducati Team: 2nd, 1:28.680
“A very positive qualifying session for me; it was really important to be able to start from the front row tomorrow. Let's hope we can make a good start in the race, because here it is essential. For sure following Jorge gave me a hand in improving my lap time, but we have been quick all weekend in every session, we have worked well and we've always improved the bike. In the race we have to be quick right from the start, because it's important on this track. In any case I am really happy and upbeat; I'd like to thank all the guys in my team who, despite some difficulties, always manage to find the right solutions, even at the last minute.”
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