~ Auto Buzz ~: MOTOGP INDY BLOG: QUALIFYING No surprise, the two factory Hondas are on top. But where is Rossi?

The grid for the 2015 Red Bull Indianapolis Grand Prix will be more of the same, with the HRC Hondas of Marc Marquez and Dani Pedrosa comfortably on top. Marquez is clear of Jorge Lorenzo’s 3rd-place Yamaha by 0.302 seconds. The big surprise? Danilo Petrucci, once a lost lad on a sputtering CRT, jumped to 5th-quick on an Octo Pramac Ducati. Marquez had been visibly quick in direction-changing. For qualifying, he looked even quicker yet. Pedrosa’s 2nd-place performance came at the price of a visibly hectic slip-sliding lap. CHATTER:

MARC MARQUEZ "I'm happy because FP4 went very well. Maybe the 6 tenths aren't completely 'real' and there is actually only one or two-tenths difference, but the positive thing is that we managed to turn around the gap that we had to Jorge yesterday. There is still the warmup tomorrow and I think everybody is improving, as the track condition is changing and we have to continue to adapt to it. Right now Jorge is the toughest rival and we must be vigilant."

DANI PEDROSA "Today we worked a lot with the tires, because at the moment my race pace is slower than that of Marc and Jorge. In the qualifying session I was able to do quite well. With the second tire I had a good feeling, but I made some mistakes in some sections of the circuit and I tried to do an extra lap—which didn't go so well. I'm happy to get a place on the front row, so we will continue working hard to try and gain a few tenths for tomorrow, because there are a couple of sectors—the first two—in which I am losing some time. We shall see if we can improve my riding and increase the grip a little, so that tomorrow we can be in the fight for the win."

JORGE LORENZO “Our competitors were very explosive and fast, especially during qualifying on one lap. It‘s always difficult to beat them during the practices, not just at this track, but in general. I was a little bit afraid before putting in the last tire, because I was in sixth position. Luckily for me I managed over the weekend to save one more tire and in the third try-out I was able to improve my time by half a second and that gave me first row. This is vital, because tomorrow Marc can go very quickly from the beginning and it‘s important to be as close to him as possible. It will be a long race, I think we have a good pace and we didn‘t improve the bike as we expected, but we still have the warm up to try some things.” VALENTINO ROSSI “Yesterday I was very slow and a bit worried, and we didn‘t start with a good base setting. Today the situation has improved, especially my pace is not so bad. In FP4 I was in fourth position and I raised my level and my potential a lot and also the life of the tire is longer, but unfortunately in qualifying I wasn‘t strong enough to start from the second row. I hit traffic, made mistakes and I have to start from the third row. This is a big problem because I‘m not very fast here and we still have some problems with the bike that we have to improve, we have to make a step for tomorrow. I think fighting for the podium tomorrow will be hard, because Marc and Jorge are very strong, but at this track like at Sachsenring also Dani is very fast, so it will be difficult.” Sunday’s race begins at 2 p.m. local Indiana time. QUALIFYING RESULTS: 2015 RED BULL INDIANAPOLIS GRAND PRIX Qualifying 2: 1. Marc Marquez ESP Repsol Honda Team (RC213V) 1m 31.884s 2. Dani Pedrosa ESP Repsol Honda Team (RC213V) 1m 32.055s +0.171s 3. Jorge Lorenzo ESP Movistar Yamaha MotoGP (YZR-M1) 1m 32.186s +0.302s 4. Cal Crutchlow GBR CWM LCR Honda (RC213V) 1m 32.208s +0.324s 5. Danilo Petrucci ITA Octo Pramac Racing (Desmosedici GP14.1) 1m 32.243s +0.359s 6. Bradley Smith GBR Monster Yamaha Tech 3 (YZR-M1) 1m 32.269s +0.385s 7. Andrea Iannone ITA Ducati Team (Desmosedici GP15) 1m 32.468s +0.584s 8. Valentino Rossi ITA Movistar Yamaha MotoGP (YZR-M1) 1m 32.511s 9. Maverick Viñales ESP Team Suzuki Ecstar (GSX-RR)* 1m 32.571s +0.687s 10. Andrea Dovizioso ITA Ducati Team (Desmosedici GP15) 1m 32.636s +0.752s 11. Pol Espargaro ESP Monster Yamaha Tech 3 (YZR-M1) 1m 32.670s +0.786s 12. Aleix Espargaro ESP Team Suzuki Ecstar (GSX-RR) 1m 32.814s +0.930s   Qualifying 1: 13. Scott Redding GBR Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS (RC213V) 1m 33.170s 14. Hector Barbera ESP Avintia Racing (Desmosedici GP14 Open) 1m 33.199s 15. Yonny Hernandez COL Octo Pramac Racing (Desmosedici GP14.2) 1m 33.278s 16. Jack Miller AUS CWM LCR Honda (RC213V-RS)* 1m 33.381s 17. Stefan Bradl GER Factory Aprilia Gresini (RS-GP) 1m 33.822s 18. Alvaro Bautista ESP Factory Aprilia Gresini (RS-GP) 1m 33.839s 19. Eugene Laverty IRL Aspar MotoGP Team (RC213V-RS)* 1m 33.978s 20. Nicky Hayden USA Aspar MotoGP Team (RC213V-RS) 1m 34.030s 21. Alex De Angelis RSM E-Motion IodaRacing (ART) 1m 34.226s 22. Mike Di Meglio FRA Avintia Racing (Desmosedici GP14 Open) 23. Toni Elias SPA AB Motoracing (RC213V-RS) 1m 35.167s