The second day of practice at the circuit of Indianapolis did not go too well for the Repsol riders, as they finished down the field owing to problems with their bikes. Márquez fell twice – one in free practice because of engine problems – something which made him drop to 9th in classification. The other Repsol riders had even more difficulties and mean that they will start from a disappointing 22nd positon – Rabat, 23rd for Beaubier, and 26th for Redding.
Marc Márquez’s difficulties began in free practice as he could only do 8 laps. He was thrown off his bike because of a mechanical problem on the fast corner 1 of the circuit, and this kept him out of the rest of the session. The Repsol rider had another small fall 16 minutes from the end of the classification but was able to return to the pits to check that there was not too much damage done to his KTM and so continue riding, in the end he was 9th just half a second off the pole position set by Julián Simón.
Cameron Beaubier, his teammate, is even further back, and is still affected by the shoulder injury he got in Brno. Bit by bit he is getting his confidence back and today lowered his times, compared to yesterday – by two seconds and a half although he will start from the 6th row in 23rd position. One place ahead of him is Esteve Rabat who had tyre selection problems as he tried to adapt to the American circuit. He has not been able to ride comfortably so far this weekend.
His teammate Scott Redding will be on the row just behind him after hardly being able to ride in classification because of a problem with his Aprilia. The Briton had been 9th in the morning but after 8 laps in the classification his engine stopped but was able to go back out on the track later. He will be 26th on the grid, a position that will oblige him to make a very special effort to get past the slower riders on the first few laps.
Marc Márquez, 1’49.852 secs, 24 laps, 101 km. >> Audio
“This morning I fell because of a small problem with the engine. In classification I lacked a bit of confidence at the beginning but I kept on going and felt more and more comfortable until I had another fall. This time I made a silly mistake, I leaned too far on the dirty part of the track. Anyway I am9th which is not too bad, not as far back as I was in Brno, so tomorrow I will try to make a good start. In the warm-up we will put the final touches to the set up because logically what we had yesterday was a bit unbalanced as we have been a second faster”.
Esteve Rabat, 1’51.470 secs, 33 laps, 139 km. >> Audio
“It was a complicated day with a lot of problems. And when the moment came to set a fast time we made the wrong tyre selection as we used a narrower rear tyre than is suited to this track and it slid around a lot more. Anyway with the wide one, which was the good one, I was not so fast either, and neither did I get a good reference bike to follow as that could have helped me, just the opposite in fact, I came across a lot of slow traffic. Now we will have to find solutions for tomorrow because we cannot carry on like this”.
Scott Redding, 1’51.569 secs, 27 laps, 114 km. >> Audio
“Free practice started well, we had a good set up and I was able to set some good times but when I went out in classification we had some mechanical problems. That was at the beginning and I had only done two laps at a decent pace. I cannot say much more about this session, it is not the first time that it has happened this season, but we will fight to improve tomorrow”.
Cameron Beaubier, 1’51.527 secs, 35 laps, 148 km. >> Audio
“Today was better than yesterday, although I had to fight a lot with the circuit, especially the third sector, and with my damaged shoulder which still hurts. I hope to have a good start tomorrow and try to catch the leaders. I felt much more comfortable after a few laps so I hope that tomorrow I can go a bit faster tomorrow especially on my worst sector”.
