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maltatoday, SUNDAY, 3 APRIL 2016 53 Sport FORMULA 1 MOTOGP Hamilton pips Rosberg to Bahrain pole Marquez romps to pole position A late crash couldn't stop Marc Marquez from taking pole position with Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lor- enzo behind him on the front row. Monster Yamaha Tech 3 duo Pol Espargaro and Bradley Smith joined the top ten MotoGP™ World Championship riders for Q2. Track temperature was just above 40°C, slightly warmer than in FP3. All riders headed out with the hard front tyre and the medium option Michelin tyres for the start of the 15-minute session. It didn't take long for the fast times to come, Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda Team) 'easing' into the ses- sion with a 1'39.411, the fastest lap of the weekend. This time immedi- ately put him a second clear of the rest of the field and saw the riders playing catch up. Unlike in Qatar, Jorge Lorenzo (Movistar Yamaha MotoGP) re- turned to the pits after just a sin- gle flying lap, opting for a slightly different strategy to the rest of the field. His teammate, Valentino Ros- si, chose to stay out for several laps and was the second rider to drop into the 1'39s by the half way mark of the session. Two or three stop strategies didn't matter as the session came to a close, Marquez untouchable in the session. A crash at Turn 1 with three minutes remaining saw the Span- iard unable to improve his time, but no rider was able to get with 0.3s of his 1'39.411. This is Marquez's first pole position since Phillip Island in 2015 and his 13th consecutive front row start in the premier class. On each of his visits to the Termas de Rio Hondo, Marquez has started on pole. A 1'39.786 saw 'The Doctor' as the only rider able to get within half a second of Marquez's time. This is just Rossi's 13th front row start since returning to Yamaha in 2013. Rossi's last front row start came at the Malaysian GP in 2015, where he went on to finish third. The Italian proved in Qatar that if he can stay with the front riders he can battle for the podium, second on the grid gives him a perfect perch to launch from and stop Lorenzo and Mar- quez escaping. Completing the front row is de- fending MotoGP™ World Cham- pion Jorge Lorenzo, third his worst grid position since he was fourth at the Malaysia GP in 2015. His 1'39.786 was 0.533s back on Mar- quez's time, both riders having fall- en at Turn 1 over the course of the Gran Premio Motul de la República Argentina weekend. Due to his crash in FP4 the Majorcan had only one bike for the session, a second fall would have been devastating. The top three were the only riders able to drop into the 1'39s. Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda Team) will lead the charge from the second row, 0.6s behind his team- mate. Fourth is a dramatic improve- ment over his seventh place start in Qatar. Pedrosa will be aiming to return to the podium after missing out in Qatar, the leading riders able to break away without him. Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team) starts as the leading Ducati in fifth; his early pace not lasting until Qualifying as both the fac- tory Ducati riders struggled slightly some speed. His teammate, Andrea Iannone, will start just behind him in sixth, 0.074s dividing the two riders. Both have had historically strong races in Argentina and Ian- none needs to finish in the points after crashing out of the Qatar GP. After a promising start to the weekend, Maverick Viñales (Team Suzuki Ecstar) was only able to manage seventh on the grid. This may appear as a modest result, but is a three-place improvement over his 2015 Argentina GP start. Hector Barbera (Avintia Racing) secured the honours of top Inde- pendent Team rider once again as he grabbed eighth on the grid. Cal Crutchlow (LCR Honda) fell at Turn 1 as he began his second flying lap, the Brit on his feet and running back to the pits for his second ma- chine immediately. He will begin the race in ninth. Pol Espargaro (Monster Yamaha Tech 3) will launch from 10th and ahead of brother Aleix Espargaro (Team Suzuki Ecstar). Brit Bradley Smith's (Monster Yamaha Tech 3) Q2 session came to a premature end as he fell at Turn 1, starting 12th as a result. All of the top 12 were within a second of a half of each other. Colombian rider Yonny Hernan- dez (Aspar Team MotoGP) will start from 21st on the grid for his home round. MERCEDES will fervently hope for better starts than they man- aged in Melbourne, after Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg over- came Ferrari's FP3 pace to take the front row of the grid for the second 2016 race in succession yesterday. The red cars were still a major threat, however, setting up the prospect of a tough and tactical race today. Just 0.077s separated the Silver Arrows as Hamilton edged out Rosberg with the fastest ever lap around the Bahrain International Circuit, as the second and final Q3 runs came down to a straight fight with their Ferrari rivals. Daniel Ricciardo put Red Bull fifth, ahead of the Williams of Fe- lipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas, and Force India's Nico Hulkenberg, the final Q3 runner. Mercedes admitted that they had lacked pace in in the final practice session, but they ruled Q1 with Rosberg on 1m 31.325s from Ham- ilton on 1m 31.391s, on Pirelli's su- persoft rubber. Ricciardo jumped to third, ahead of Vettel, Bottas and Raikkonen, a hair over three- tenths covering all six. Pascal Wehrlein was the last of those to be eliminated in the open- ing phase, taking an excellent 16th for Manor with 1m 32.806s after increasing his pace at exactly the right moment, as Marcus Erics- son ran out of time in his Sauber for 17th on 1m 32.840s ahead of Sergio Perez's Force India on 1m 32.911s, the Renaults of Kevin Magnussen and Jolyon Palmer on 1m 33.181s and 1m 33.438s, Rio Haryanto in the other Manor on 1m 34.190s and Felipe Nasr's Sau- ber on 1m 34.388s. As darkness fell, Raikkonen led the two Mercedes out for Q2. This time it was 'Hammer time', as Hamilton was top dog for the first time in the weekend on 1m 30.039s. Vettel got closest with 1m 30.406s after Rosberg locked up on his way to 1m 30.535s and Raikkonen managed 1m 30.559s to head fellow Finn Bottas on 1m 30.995s. Daniil Kvyat was the first of those to be eliminated, with 1m 32.241s in his Red Bull. Then Jen- son Button went, in 14th with 1m 31.998s for McLaren. Esteban Gut- ierrez's 1m 31.945s left him 13th as Stoffel Vandoorne's great F1 debut saw him outqualify Button with 1m 31.934s. Carlos Sainz and Max Verstappen were also out, with 1m 31.816s and 1m 31.772s, while the only excitement came when Nico Hulkenberg's late 1m 31.604s run saw him jump up from 11th to push Romain Grosjean's Haas out of a fairy tale position in Q3. So now it came down to Mer- cedes v Ferrari yet again, head-to- head for the pole. And this time it went down to the wire. Raikkonen set the ball rolling with 1m 30.244s, before Vettel im- proved that to 1m 30.065s. Hamil- ton's first effort was spoiled when he ran wide exiting Turn 15, so 1m 30.627s left him vulnerable as Ros- berg reeled off 1m 29.897s to take temporary pole. All four, however, went for second runs -the only Q3 runners to do so. This time Raikkonen came up short with 1m 30.397s but Hamil- ton nailed it with three purple sec- tors to jump from fourth and take pole with 1m 29.493s, Rosberg im- proving to 1m 29.570s to lock out the pole for the Silver Arrows even though Vettel also went quicker, with 1m 30.012s. Ricciardo was fifth with 1m 30.854s, leaving the Williams duo sixth and seventh with Bottas pip- ping Massa by two-thousandths of a second. Hulkenberg was eighth. Thus the provisional grid will line up: Hamilton, Rosberg; Vet- tel, Raikkonen; Ricciardo, Bottas; Massa, Hulkenberg; Grosjean, Verstappen; Sainz, Vandoorne; Gutierrez, Button; Kvyat, Wehr- lein; Ericsson, Perez; Palmer, Har- yanto; Nasr. Magnussen must start from the pit lane after missing a weight check in FP2. Lewis Hamilton celebrates Marc Marquez