Pedrosa takes pole at Catalonia MotoGP as Marquez crashes to end run

Pedrosa on board the Repsol Honda RC211V. Photo by Santosh Raghavan / Wikimedia Commons.

BARCELONA, Spain—Dani Pedrosa took pole position for the Catalonia Grand Prix on Saturday while points leader Marc Marquez crashed, ending his run of six poles in the first six races of the MotoGP season.

Marquez was trying to beat Pedrosa’s time when he lost control of his front wheel and slid into the gravel on turn 1. He walked away and still managed the session’s third best time behind Jorge Lorenzo in second.

Pedrosa, Marquez’s Honda teammate, clocked the fastest lap of 1 minute, 40.985 seconds at the Barcelona-Catalunya circuit.

Marquez has started his title defence by winning all six races this year to lead the standings with 150 points. Valentino Rossi is second with 97 points and will start Sunday’s race from fifth on the grid behind Stefan Bradl.