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Spaniard Marc Marquez took another step towards becoming the youngest ever MotoGP world champion as he broke the track record to take pole at the final grand prix of the season in Valencia.
The 20-year-old, who just needs to finish in the top four in the race on Sunday to seal the title in his first year as a MotoGP rider, destroyed the previous track record held by Dani Pedrosa by six tenths of a second to finish well ahead of championship rival and defending champion Jorge Lorenzo.
However, having already registered his record-breaking time, Marquez suffered a scare on his final qualifying lap as he nearly came off his bike.
And the Honda rider is determined to not let a similar lapse of concentration cost him dearly come race time.
“I had a little scare on the last lap because I didn’t want to push too hard and when you are not fully concentrated this is what happens,” he told Spanish TV station Telecinco.
“It was a little scare ahead of tomorrow to remind me I have to be 100 per cent concentrated.
“The good thing is that I feel good, I have good ryhthm on the bike and I just have to concentrate on my own race tomorrow.”
It turned out to be a frustrating afternoon for Lorenzo who had started the day by going faster than Marquez for the first time this weekend in Saturday’s final practice session.
The defending world champion then set the early pace in qualifying, but was forced to change bikes midway through the session and never came close to threatening the time registered by his compatriot.
“All of a sudden the bike stopped working properly, we had to change to the second bike and it is much worse so we couldn’t fight with Marc for the pole.
“We hope to fix the problem we had with the first bike for tomorrow.”
However, even if the problem with his bike is fixed in time for the race, Lorenzo is not convinced he will be lifting a third world championship come Sunday afternoon.
“It is very difficult, 13 points is a lot. That Marc will finish fifth, sixth or even worse is very hard to imagine. But we have to be very concentrated on doing our job as best as we can and see what happens in the end.”
Three-time winner in Valencia and Marquez’s Honda team-mate Pedrosa will also start on the front row as he too bettered his track record from last year.
Seven-time world champion Valentino Rossi found himself in a familiar position as he starts in fourth behind the three Spaniards.
AFP
Topics:
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