Record breaking Marquez claims Brno pole

Marc Marquez has broken the outright lap record on his way to pole position for the Czech Republic Grand Prix at Brno.

The Repsol Honda rider produced a spectacular last gasp effort to take the top spot from Yamaha’s Jorge Lorenzo, who had shattered the circuit lap record earlier in the day in Practice 3.

Marquez sat second prior to his stunning late show that saw the double world champion dive underneath Valentino Rossi at the final corner on his way to an impressive 1:54.596s time.

“I was pushing 100 percent. I was lucky because Valentino (Rossi) was in front and with his slipstream I was able to be a little bit faster,” said Marquez.

“At the end, this move (on Rossi) gave me the pole position, but looking to the race I am very happy with FP4 because it is the (race) pace that is most important and we improved a lot.”

Lorenzo had looked in control of proceedings in the 15-minute Q2 session, but the reigning world champion was left to settle for second spot.

“(It was an) impressive lap time from Marc (Marquez) – very, very fast,” said Lorenzo.

“We are happy with the second place because we have a good setup to keep a constant pace during the race.”

Andrea Iannone set his personal best after the chequered flag to give Ducati another front row start in third.

Aleix Espargaro (Suzuki), Hector Barbera (Avintia Ducati), and Rossi (Movistar Yamaha) completed the second row.

Andrea Dovizioso secured seventh despite being hampered by an apparent front tyre issue on his Ducati.

Maverick Viñales (Suzuki), Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda), and Cal Crutchlow (LCR Honda) rounded out the top 10.

Jack Miller is a non-starter this weekend due to injuries sustained in a warm-up crash at the Austrian Grand Prix last weekend.

Sunday’s 22-lap Czech Republic Grand Prix commences at 2200 AEST.

In Moto2, Australia’s Remy Gardner ended an interrupted qualifying session in 21st position.

Result: MotoGP Czech Republic Grand Prix Qualifying 

Position	Rider	Bike	Time	Gap
1	Marc Marquez	Honda	1:54.596s
2	Jorge Lorenzo	Yamaha	1:54.849s	+0.253s
3	Andrea Iannone	Ducati	1:55.227s	+0.631s
4	Aleix Espargaro	Suzuki	1:55.324s	+0.728s
5	Hector Barbera	Avintia Ducati	1:55.437s	+0.841s
6	Valentino Rossi	Yamaha	1:55.509s	+0.913s
7	Andrea Dovizioso	Ducati	1:55.748s	+1.152s
8	Maverick Vinales	Suzuki	1:55.787s	+1.191s
9	Dani Pedrosa	Honda	1:55.841s	+1.245s
10	Cal Crutchlow	LCR Honda	1:55.930s	+1.334s
11	Bradley Smith	Tech3 Yamaha	1:56.115s	+1.519s
12	Pol Espargaro	Tech3 Yamaha	1:56.522s	+1.926s
13	Scott Redding	Pramac Ducati	1:56.148s	+1.552s
14	Eugene Laverty	Aspar Ducati	1:56.535s	+1.939s
15	Stefan Bradl	Aprilia	1:56.718s	+2.122s
16	Danilo Petrucci	Pramac Ducati	1:56.263s	+1.667s
17	Loris Baz	Avintia Ducati	1:56.797s	+2.201s
18	Yonny Hernandez	Aspar Ducati	1:56.805s	+2.209s
19	Alvaro Bautista	Aprilia	1:57.062s	+2.466s
20	Tito Rabat	Marc VDS Honda	1:57.606s	+3.010s