Marc Márquez, the young rider who currently tops the 125cc standings at just 17 years old and who has claimed 5 wins in a row this season, continues surprising and demonstrating his potential. After a serious fall in the closing minutes of yesterday’s free practice session, in which he dislocated his shoulder, today, the Repsol rider overcame the pain of his injury to set the fourth best time in the qualifying session, which was dominated by Bradley Smith.
Due to his physical form, Márquez decided to be cautious and stay in the garage during this morning’s free practice session – which was held under precarious track conditions due to the rain that fell over night -, in order to directly tackle the qualifying session, under better conditions. After completing four laps at the beginning of the qualifying session in order to run in the engine and check his physical form, Márquez went into the garage to share his feelings with the team.
After this first step, it was time to get down to some hard work. Something that the young Repsol rider did well, as in just a few laps, he climbed from the bottom part of the timesheets, which he occupied after these four laps, to fifteenth and in the next, he was already in the leading group. Márquez was in third at one point but finally ended the session in an impressive fourth place, considering his physical form.
The injury to his dislocated shoulder obviously hurt him when he was riding his Derbi, particularly when braking left and quickly changing direction. With the aim of fighting for a spot in the second or third row of the starting grid, the Repsol rider was very satisfied with his performance at the end of the session and is optimistic about tomorrow’s race, in which he will have to battle with a group of riders on top form, who have had an extra practice session to set up their machines.
Marc Márquez, 2’08.186 sec, 14 laps, 76 Km >> Audio
“It’s been a tough day. In the morning, we decided not to go out on the track because it was too risky considering the track conditions and my shoulder. We decided to save our energy for the qualifying session but it was just as tough because my shoulder dislocated and it hurt, as well as not being very strong. I would like to thank the Mobile Clinic and Dr. Costa because they are treating me really well, with very good bandaging that helps to keep my shoulder in place. We tried to improve little-by-little although Bradley Smith and Nico Terol were very fast. We aren’t too far behind Pol [Espargaró], so we’ll see if we can improve a bit more tomorrow because we’ve had one practice session less and haven’t been able to test many changes”.
