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MOTOGP MOTOGP WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP ROUND 17/OCTOBER 26, 2014 SEPANG INTERNATIONAL CIRCUIT/SEPANG MALAYSIA P56 the stronger, and over the last laps he pulled out a commanding lead, to win by 2.4 seconds. At an ever-increasing dis- tance, Dovizioso had been keeping his Ducati a couple of seconds clear of Stefan Bradl's LCR Honda, happy to maintain a steady pace at a difficult track for the Ducati. Then a fuel pump started to play up. "Every time I opened the gas, the engine stuttered," Dovizioso said after starting a rapid slide backwards. At the same time, Monster Tech 3 Yamaha's Bradley Smith had been holding station a cou- ple of seconds adrift of Bradl. To- wards the end the German was also having tire trouble on the ever greasy and overheated sur- face. Smith closed rapidly, but his final lunge, at the last corner, saw him run wide instead, and he was a close fifth. It was a brave sixth for Smith's teammate Pol Espargaro, who had broken a bone in his gear- shift foot after an oil leak and resultant heavy crash the day be- fore. He had a good battle with >>RECORD MAN More records for Marc Marquez came in Malaysia - a 13th pole of the year is the most in history, while he was also the first to break the two-minute barrier at Sepang at a race (it had been done at pre-season tests) to claim a new best lap. It was a personal landmark: his 50th career pole. He'd spent the first day "try- ing some things for the future" – a process interrupted when a massive rainstorm struck at the end of Moto3 FP2, disrupting the second free ses- sions for MotoGP and Moto2. Then on the second, in spite of crashing in FP4, "I found my way." This was not as easy as the ex- tensive preseason testing at Sepang might suggest. "We cannot compare the data," he said. "For example at the tests the hard rear tire worked really well, but now not. Now the soft works well, and at the tests not. And the bike set-up has changed." He was not the only one to crash the two-minute barrier. Two-time Sepang winner Dani Pedrosa, on the second Repsol Honda, also made it, to qualify second, less than two tenths behind his teammate. He too was surprised. "Nor- mally in such hot conditions you lose power and the tires don't work so well." But the variable weather that had brought yesterday's storm was a concern "We have to be ready for both conditions," Pedrosa said. Jorge Lorenzo was third, and though displeased with his single lap time, "our race pace is good," he said. Teammate Valentino Rossi's second Movistar Yamaha was on the far end of row two, with LCR Honda's Stefan Bradl placed second after tagging on behind Marquez; and then Andrea Dovizioso's Ducati: he had done the time alone. Valentino Rossi was a full second down on pole, and half a second slower than Lorenzo. Aleix Espargaro led row three from Cal Crutchlow and Bradley Smith, with the times now spreading out. Alvaro Bautista was 10th after coming through from Q1; Hiroshi Aoyama (11th) had done the same, but spoiled his chances by crashing on his second lap of Q2, managing to get out at the end to set a time fully eight seconds slower than he had managed 15 minutes earlier. Yonny Hernandez was best of the rest to lead row five, with produc- tion Honda riders Nicky Hayden and Karely Abraham pushing through at the end to join him. Marc Marquez earned his 13 th pole position of the season in Malaysia. Pol Espargaro bounced back from his crash in practice to finish sixth in the Grand Prix.

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