With his third qualifying time and Marc Marquez's seventh place, Andrea Dovizioso extended the suspense in the fight between him and the Spaniard for the title of World Champion.
The trend began in free practice, with the fourth time in the standings combined for Dovizioso and the ninth for Marquez. Dovi was 0.177 behind the best time of Valentino Rossi, while Marc was at 0.520.
During the qualifying session, Andrea set the third fastest time, just 0.024 behind Dani Pedrosa's pole position and 0.007 behind second fastest time. Johann zarco. He therefore completed the first line with his Ducati which also included a Honda and a Yamaha. This balance between the three brands, within a few thousandths of a second, was a promise of a quality spectacle for the race.
The operation was good for Dovizioso, because Marquez having only qualified in seventh position, he inserted the three drivers from the second row between them: Valentino Rossi, Maverick Vinales and Jorge Lorenzo. Marquez will therefore have to get off to an excellent start to hope to follow Dovi during the first laps.
According to Andrea Dovizioso, who are " We've gotten through the weekend pretty well so far. I am very happy with our work. In the wet we confirmed that we are very competitive. On dry track, however, we were worried. But my feelings on the machine were pretty good from the start.
“Every time we tried a new setting, it was even better. I felt more and more comfortable. So I was able to really push hard in qualifying and set a good time.
“In the fourth session I also had a very good performance with the worn tires. I ride the bike very well, regarding the characteristics of the track and the temperature we are very competitive, but the other riders also have a very good pace, at least four or five opponents are very fast.
“We will only see in the race who is really the fastest, we will have to wait to see what the conditions will be like on Sunday. Our goal was to be prepared for anything, for dry and wet conditions. We can fight.
“We haven't decided on the tires yet. However, we are in a good situation in this regard, because we have several options: we focused on the soft rear tire during the afternoon because I already had a good feeling with the medium tire.
“Sunday afternoon it will be important to be as fast as the opponents, but at the same time to spare the tires because the race is long and the heat is hard to bear. »
How tired do #MotoGP riders feel after a race? Especially in the heat in Sepang ☀️🔥#MotoGPFanQ pic.twitter.com/JW21s5uTTp
- MotoGP @ 🏁 (@MotoGP) October 28, 2017
Qualification results:
1 Dani PEDROSA SPA Repsol Honda Team Honda 1'59.212
2 Johann ZARCO FRA Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Yamaha 1'59.229 0.017
3 Andrea DOVIZIOSO ITA Ducati Team Ducati 1'59.236 0.024
4 46 Valentino ROSSI ITA Movistar Yamaha MotoGP Yamaha 1'59.498 0.286
5 Maverick VIÑALES SPA Movistar Yamaha MotoGP Yamaha 1'59.538 0.326
6 Jorge LORENZO SPA Ducati Team Ducati 1'59.622 0.410
7 Marc MARQUEZ SPA Repsol Honda Team Honda 1'59.694 0.482
8 Alex RINS SPA Team SUZUKI ECSTAR Suzuki 1'59.992 0.780
9 Andrea IANNONE ITA Team SUZUKI ECSTAR Suzuki 2'00.119 0.907
10 Cal CRUTCHLOW GBR LCR Honda Honda 2'00.181 0.969
11 Jack MILLER AUS EG 0,0 Marc VDS Honda 2'00.326 1.114
12 Pol ESPARGARO SPA Red Bull KTM Factory Racing KTM 2'00.770 1.558
13 Danilo PETRUCCI ITA OCTO Pramac Racing Ducati
14 Scott REDDING GBR OCTO Pramac Racing Ducati
15 Alvaro BAUTISTA SPA Pull&Bear Aspar Team Ducati
16 Bradley SMITH GBR Red Bull KTM Factory Racing KTM
17 Loris BAZ FRA Reale Avintia Racing Ducati
18 Sam LOWES GBR Aprilia Racing Team Gresini Aprilia
19 Tito RABAT SPA EG 0,0 Marc VDS Honda
20 Hector BARBERA SPA Reale Avintia Racing Ducati
21 Karel ABRAHAM CZE Pull&Bear Aspar Team Ducati
22 Michael VAN DER MARK NED Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Yamaha
Provisional ranking of the World Championship:
1 MARQUEZ Marc SPA 269 points
2 DOVIZIOSO Andrea ITA 236
3 VIÑALES Maverick SPA 219
4 ROSSI Valentino ITA 188
5 PEDROSA Dani SPA 174
6 ZARCO Johann FRA 138
7 LORENZO Jorge SPA 117
8 PETRUCCI Danilo ITA 111
9 CRUTCHLOW Cal GBR 103
10 FOLGER Jonas GER 84
11 BAUTISTA Alvaro SPA 70
12 MILLER Jack AUS 65
13 ESPARGARO Aleix SPA 62
14 REDDING Scott GBR 61
15 IANNONE Andrea ITA 60
16 ESPARGARO Pol SPA 49
17 RINS Alex SPA 46
18 BAZ Loris FRA 45
19 ABRAHAM Karel CZE 30
20 RABAT Tito SPA 29
21 BARBERA Hector SPA 25
22 SMITH Bradley GBR 20
23 PIRRO Michele ITA 18
24 KALLIO Mika END 11
25 LOWES Sam GBR 5
26 NAKASUGA Katsuyuki JPN 4
27 GUINTOLI Sylvain FRA 1
28 TSUDA Takuya JPN 0
Classification by manufacturers:
1 HONDA 319 points
2 YAMAHA 285
3 DUCATI 278
4 SUZUKI 87
5 APRILIA 64
6 KTM 58
Team ranking:
1 REPSOL HONDA TEAM 443 points
2 MOVISTAR YAMAHA MOTOGP 407
3 DUCATI TEAM 353
4 MONSTER YAMAHA TECH 3 222
5 OCTO PRAMAC RACING 172
6 TEAM SUZUKI ECSTAR 107
7 LCR HONDA 103
8 PULL&BEAR ASPAR TEAM 100
9 EG 0,0 MARC VDS 94
10 REALE AVINTIA RACING 70
11 RED BULL KTM FACTORY RACING 69
12 APRILIA RACING TEAM GRESINI 67
Photo © Ducati
