Dominant Marquez claims Le Mans pole

Marc Marquez claimed his third pole position of the MotoGP season with a dominant performance in qualifying for the French Grand Prix.

The reigning world champion set the pace from the start of the session before going on to better his time twice on his way to securing his 25th premier class pole position.

In the end, the Honda rider emerged with a personal best of 1:32.246s, which was 0.2s shy of his 2014 pole position lap at the Le Mans.

A late effort from Ducati’s Andrea Dovizioso saw him shoot to second although the Italian was more than half a second adrift of Marquez.

Yamaha’s Jorge Lorenzo was unable to repeat his session topping practice pace as he completed the front row of the grid in third.

LCR Honda’s Cal Crutchlow will head up the second row in fourth, with the Brit narrowly ahead of Ducati’s Andrea Iannone, who is competing despite dislocating his shoulder in a testing accident earlier this week.

Bradley Smith secured sixth spot on the grid with the satellite Monster Yamaha rider eclipsing the pace of championship leader and factory rider Valentino Rossi.

Returning Honda rider Dani Pedrosa will start his first race since the season opener in Qatar from eighth, alongside Danilo Petrucci.

Aleix Espargaro emerged as the top Suzuki rider to complete the top 10.

Australia’s Jack Miller will start the fifth round of the world championship from 18th following a strong ride on the Open Class LCR Honda.

Result: MotoGP French Grand Prix Qualifying, Le Mans 

Position	Rider	Bike	Time	Gap
1	Marc Márquez	Honda	1:32.246s
2	Andrea Dovizioso	Ducati	1:32.749s	+0.503s
3	Jorge Lorenzo	Yamaha	1:32.846s	+0.600s
4	Cal Crutchlow	LCR Honda	1:32.897s	+0.651s
5	Andrea Iannone	Ducati	1:33.001s	+0.755s
6	Bradley Smith	Tech 3 Yamaha	1:33.299s	+1.053s
7	Valentino Rossi	Yamaha	1:33.352s	+1.106s
8	Daniel Pedrosa	Honda	1:33.419s	+1.173s
9	Danilo Petrucci	Pramac Ducati	1:33.556s	+1.310s
10	Aleix Espargaró	Suzuki	1:33.665s	+1.419s
11	Yonny Hernández	Pramac Ducati	1:33.714s	+1.468s
12	Pol Espargaró	Tech 3 Yamaha	1:33.724s	+1.478s
13	Maverick Viñales	Suzuki	1:34.245s	+1.999s
14	Nicky Hayden	Aspar Honda	1:34.267s	+2.021s
15	Scott Redding	Marc VDS Honda	1:34.551s	+2.305s
16	Stefan Bradl	Forward Yamaha	1:34.575s	+2.329s
17	Mike Di Meglio	Avintia Ducati	1:34.833s	+2.587s
18	Jack Miller	LCR Honda	1:34.858s	+2.612s
19	Héctor Barberá	Avintia Ducati	1:34.870s	+2.624s
20	Karel Abraham	AB Honda	1:34.940s	+2.694s
21	Eugene Laverty	Aspar Honda	1:34.947s	+2.701s
22	Loris Baz	Forward Yamaha	1:35.456s	+3.210s
23	Álvaro Bautista	Gresini Aprilia	1:35.458s	+3.212s
24	Alex de Angelis	ART/Aprilia	1:35.680s	+3.434s
25	Marco Melandri	Gresini Aprilia	1:37.522s	+5.276s