Marquez storms to Spanish GP pole in record time

Reigning world champion Marc Marquezcontinued his MotoGP domination on Saturday at Jerez to secure his fourth straightpole in track record time for Sunday's Spanish Grand Prix.The Spaniard's time of 1min 38.120sec broke compatriot Jorge Lorenzo's previousrecord from 2008 by 0.069 of a second and in doing so relegated the Yamaha star tosecond place on the grid.Marquez has a commanding lead in the championship standings having won allthree races so far this season in Qatar, the United States and Argentina.And the 21-year-old thanked his team for a new strategy using three different sets oftyres for helping him keep his run going."We used a new strategy and on the last run the tyres worked very well," he said."We are performing at a good level and we are prepared to fight for the win,although I think here everything will be tighter and we will need to really pushourselves. It will be a great race."Despite losing out on pole and another record to Marquez, Lorenzo was also happyto be moving in the right direction after a difficult start to the season which sawhim have to retire from the season opener Qatar and finish down in 10th in theGrand Prix of the Americas in Austin last month."I am happy, we managed to register some good times and I am comfortable on thebike."Second place is good for tomorrow because we are more or less where we were inArgentina and possibly even a bit better."Being on the first row is ideal for what will be a very long and physicallydemanding race.Last year's winner in Jerez, Dani Pedrosa, was back in third and admitted that hisHonda teammate Marquez was too good."Being on the first row is always important. We tried to do our best in qualifying,but Marc is always very quick over one lap."Six-time world champion Valentino Rossi leads the second row of the grid in fourthahead of Spaniard Aleix Espargaro and fellow Italian Andrea Dovizioso.Finland's Miko Kallio took pole in the Moto2 category ahead of Sandro Cortese andLuis Salom.Kallio lies second in the championship standings, 28 points off leader Esteve Rabat,but will have a great chance to cut that gap as the Spaniard could only qualify insixth.Another Spaniard Maverick Vinales, who won the second race of the season in theUnited States and lies just behind Kallio in the standings, also struggled and willstart from eighth. Moto3 world championship leader Jack Miller will also lead from the front onSunday after claiming pole.The Australian finished over half a second ahead of Italy's Niccolo Antonelli andSpaniard Alex Rins in a time of 1min 46.173sec to claim just his third ever careerpole.Having won in Doha and Austin in the opening two races of the season, Miller,riding a KTM, was only third in Argentina last time out as Romano Fenati movedinto second place in the overall standings.However, he will be confident of extending his 17-point lead as Fenati qualifieddown in 10th and Efren Vazquez, currently third in the title race, also starts on thethird row of the grid in seventh. Source: AFP