Marc Márquez´s command over the 125cc class has been made clear once again in the second day of practice for the Catalunya Grand Prix which he has lead in both the free practice and qualifying sessions. With a faster pace than the rest of his rivals, the Repsol rider finished by setting a time of 1 minute, 50 seconds and 543 milliseconds, so securing his fifth pole out of the seven in which he has competed to date.
In the morning session, Márquez did not delay in placing himself at the top of the timesheets, which he headed up at the end with a time of 1 minute, 50 seconds and 43 milliseconds – only 31 milliseconds off the circuit record set by Gabor Talmacsi three years ago-. The Repsol rider has continued to work with his mind set on tomorrow’s race and, together with his team, has focussed on finding the best rear tyre compound for his Derbi.
In the definitive qualifying series of laps, the Repsol rider again only needed a few laps to one again become the reference point for the category. Márquez set the pace for the forty minutes of qualifying. Despite the efforts of Espargaró, Smith and Terol, the young pupil of Alzamora lead with authority, also overcoming a big scare on turn eleven of his last outing. Concentrating this time on front tyre choice, Márquez again showed himself to be strong and consistent, setting himself up to be one of the main candidates for victory tomorrow.
Marc Márquez, 1’50.543 sec, 34 laps, 161 km. >> Audio
“It hasn’t gone badly and we have managed to do a fairly comprehensive practice. With respect to the tyre choice, we still have a few doubts but, despite that, I felt very comfortable throughout qualifying, apart from the scare I had on one of the fast corners. These things happen in qualifying as you are always taking it to the limit on the last outing. The important thing is that we’ve been pretty consistent – setting good times -, and we are prepared to fight for the podium in the race tomorrow and try to win. Maybe I have a faster pace but, with a rider for reference, in the race you can make up a lot of ground because it helps with slipstream and braking points. It won’t be as easy to get away as it was in Holland and I think it will be a group race so we’ll try to take it calmly. If I feel comfortable I’ll try to make a good start and push hard from the first laps, setting the pace”.
