Damp qualifying conditions in Argentina led to some surprises. Although defending champ Marc Marquez (Honda) took pole position, the second spot went to Karel Abraham (Ducati) aboard a Ducati race bike two generations older than the current factory bike. Cal Crutchlow (Honda) will start from third position on the grid tomorrow. Dani Pedrosa (Honda) and Valentino Rossi (Yamaha) worked their way into Q2 after qualifying through Q1. They will start fifth and seventh, respectively.
Ducati factory teammates Andrea Dovizioso and Jorge Lorenzo both failed to make it out of Q1 and will start well back in the grid. You can follow this link for Full Qualifying Results.
See more of MD’s great photography:
Karel Abraham: 2nd qualifier.
Abraham in warmup: 22nd.
He could be like a piece of furniture out there.
And with more than half of the factory bikes crashing out (and what must’ve been a solid ride) , Karel brings in a respectable 10th. I’ll have ketchup with that crow I must eat.
Race #2 and Honda’s title hopes seem to rest in the hands of Cal Crutchlow? Crazy..
Frantisek stastny is smiling…
Wow. I had to look him up.
Yep Factory Ducati squad had a rough day.Factory Yamaha squad faired a little better. For some reason at a track where the Hondas were not supposed to do well, they did? What in the world got into Karel Abraham? I’ll bet there are MotoGP fans that don’t even recognize that name lol.
Yeah, and Danilo Petrucci is another unfamiliar name to see way up there! Also, MV and VR are surprisingly close in qualifying positions. It’s gonna be fun watching what they do starting so near each other.
Oh, and I saw the word “fared” spelled incorrectly in an article on this or another moto site just the other day. I don’t want to be pedantic, and for all I know it’s autocorrect causing the error… Anyways, the Yamaha boys fared pretty well on their fully-faired racebikes 😉