Marc Marquez Sprints To Backup Bike, Blasts To Pole For Austin GP

Marc Marquez is pretty fast, with or without his motorcycle.

According to ESPN, Marquez rode his original Repsol Honda motorcycle from the garage area, when the Honda stalled. With barely three minutes left in qualifying, Marquez left his Honda, jumped the wall nearest the pit lane and sprinted back to the garage to get to his backup Honda, then got to the track for his run.

And what a run it was.

Marquez’s run for the final qualifying lap was two minutes, 2.135 seconds, claiming the pole position for Sunday’s MotoGP Grand Prix of the Americas in Austin, Texas.

Left to ponder what had just happened was Ducati’s Andrea Dovizioso, who had claimed the pole position in the first day of qualifying time of two minutes, 2.474 seconds since the first day of qualifying.

Jorge Lorenzo and Valentino Rossi, both drivers for Movistar Yamaha, finished third and fourth for starting position, Lorenzo taking the final front row spot. Rossi is trying to add the Austin title to his win last week in Qatar.

Marquez will be going for his third consecutive win at the Circuit of the Americas track in an effort to become world champion for the third time in his career.

Autosport is reporting that Marquez had previously secured the provisional by three tenths of a second early during the second run of qualifying, but began having stalling issues with his Honda. Meanwhile, other drivers had completed qualifying laps that had pushed Marquez into seventh position.

Marquez ran into major problems when, as he was ready to start his flying lap for qualifying, Marquez’s motorcycle died, and would not start again. As time was running out, Marquez made is mad dash to the garage area after Marquez parked his unresponsive Honda by the pit area then began his incredible run to the pole.

The qualifying runs mostly took place later Friday because incessant rains hit the Austin track earlier Friday, pushing back the qualifying runs. Once the track was dry enough, qualifying continued.

Rossi joins LCR Honda rider Cal Crutchlow and Marc VDS rider Scott Redding in the second row for Sunday’s Grand Prix.

En Bien Sports is reporting that Marquez is looking forward to putting his disappointing fifth-place finish in Qatar last week behind him.

“I’m really looking forward to getting to Austin and putting Qatar behind us,” Marquez said.

“The Circuit of The Americas is one of my favorite circuits and I have good memories of taking my first win in the MotoGP class, back in 2013, and also winning there last year.”

[Image courtesy of Bien Sports]