Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda team) clinches top spot in today's enthralling 15 minute qualifying session, by setting an unbelievable pace on his very first flying lap. The Spaniard made the most of the high track temperature by clocking a 1:59.053 lap, which broke the previous pole record held by Marc Marquez (a 1:59.791 in 2014) by almost seven tenths of a second. Dani was quick throughout the weekend, trailing Jorge Lorenzo (Movistar Yamaha) by just 0.047 seconds on Friday in the combined standings. This is his first pole in almost an year, his last pole position was at Catalunya 2014.Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda) has been in the news throughout the weekend, as controversy surrounds him and his idol Valentino Rossi after the latter accused him of helping out title rival Jorge Lorenzo at Phillip Island. Marquez had a spectacular save on his second flying lap, which ruined his aspirations for gaining pole. Starting from the front row for the 15th time out of 17 races, Marquez starts from second, trailing Pedrosa by 0.409 seconds.
Valentino Rossi (Movistar Yamaha) struggled with chatter issues on Friday, but closed the gap to the front-runners significantly in FP3 and FP4. He trailed his teammate Jorge Lorenzo by 0.071 seconds until the final run, where he cut the gap to snatch a spot on the front row of the grid. Sepang saw the tension rise between the front-runners, and today's qualifying saw it rise to the peaks. Rossi leads the championship by a slender margin of 11 points, and has a great opportunity of clinching his tenth World title at Malaysia.
*** Q2 Results (Source: Motogp.com)
Jorge Lorenzo had a crash coming out turn 15 in Free practice 4, but that didn't affect him one bit. The Title contender clung onto third for almost the complete session before being knocked out by Title rival Valentino Rossi in the dying moments of Q2. Fourth is his worst qualifying performance this season since an eighth place at Assen. He'll need to do a blistering start off the second row in order to threaten and deny Rossi a win.
Hector Barbera (Avintia Ducati) surprised everyone after gaining direct entry to Q2 after a blistering fifth place in Free practice 3, forcing the likes of Bradley Smith (Monster Yamaha Tech3) and Scott Redding (Estrella Galicia MarcVDS Honda) to go through qualifying 1. Maverick Vinales (Team Suzuki Ecstar) and Smith went through Q1, with Vinales qualifying in P8 and Smith in P9.
With rain forecast for tomorrow's 20 lap showdown, will Rain-master Rossi clinch his #10? or will Jorge Lorenzo deny him victory? stay tuned for more!
Which side are you on? share it with the hashtag #Forzavale or #VamosJorge.
By: Suraj