Marquez storms to pole in sunny Brno, Rossi takes P2

On a sunny and hot second day at Brno, Repsol Honda’s Marc Marquez claimed a stunning pole position for tomorrow’s Czech Grand Prix, his fourth this season and the 69th of his career.

Movistar Yamaha MotoGP’s Valentino Rossi came out swinging on a sunny second day at the Automotodrom Brno, taking second place.

Dani Pedrosa was a close third, a mere 0.046” behind Valentino Rossi in second and just 0.138” off his teammate.

Maverick Viñales had a more challenging outing in the Q2 session, but pushed hard to secure seventh position on tomorrow‘s starting grid.

Both Marc and Dani had already displayed a fast pace in the FP3 session, taking P1 and P2 respectively despite suffering a crash each in the early stages, Marc going down at turn 10 because of an oil spill from another rider’s bike and Dani sliding out at turn 8 while pushing hard.

With the weather forecast a bit uncertain for tomorrow’s 2 p.m. race start, both Marc and Dani are confident that they’ll be ready no matter the conditions.

Movistar Yamaha MotoGP‘s Valentino Rossi scored a front row position today in a hot qualifying session, ahead of tomorrow‘s Monster Energy Grand Prix České republiky, securing second place. Maverick Viñales was on the pace, but struggled to find those all-important tenths in the second sector, ending the session in seventh position.

Rossi had already shown he was comfortable on his Yamaha YZR-M1 in the morning practice session and felt he was up to the task to challenge his rivals for a position on the front row. The Doctor left pit lane mid-field and quickly found a good place on track to start his first flying lap, claiming fourth on his first attempt. Unable to improve on his second try, he returned to the box with six and a half minutes remaining.

He was pushed down to fifth place, but this was short-lived, as Jorge Lorenzo‘s time was cancelled due to exceeding track limits. One and a half minutes later, Rossi was back out for his second run and, as many riders flashed red sectors, the nine-time World Champion responded brilliantly. He set a 1‘55.073s, 0.092s from pole, on his third time attack, and will start tomorrow’s race from second place on the front row.

eom/Repsol Honda and Movistar Yamaha releases