During the all-important qualifying session, Marc Márquez confirmed that his performance in his first Moto2 pre-season was not due to chance, nor were the times he set in the last three testing days. When the time arrived to grab a good place for tomorrow’s race, Marquez surprised everyone again. Only Bradl was able to prevent the Repsol rider from setting the fastest time in his first qualifying session in Moto2.
Everything is ready for the first Moto2 race of the year. There is only the warm up session left which, though usually held on Sunday just before the race, in Qatar it will take place tonight, at 21.55h (local time). In Qualifying, Marquez started by taking a place among the fastest of the class, as he already did in the practice session.
In his third lap, Marc set a time of 2 minutes, 1 second and 264 thousandths, half a second faster than his best free practice lap. From that moment, Emilio Alzamora’s pupil did a series of laps improving his time to a little more than 2 minutes. In lap 12 of the 18 he completed, Márquez set his fastest time of the session – 2 minutes and 375 thousandths-, which left him in the lead of the overall classification. The Repsol rider was on provisional pole position, but then Stefan Bradl snatched it from him in the last five minutes, pushing the Spaniard down to second place, a really great achievement for a rider with no experience in this competitive class.
Only Bradl, Márquez and Switzerland’s Luthi – third -, were able to set a time below the 2 minutes and 1 second. These three riders will be tomorrow in the first row of the starting grid in the first round of 2011 calendar, the Qatar Grand Prix.
Marc Márquez, 2’00.375 sec, 18 laps, 97 km. >> Audio
“Truth is we are really happy. I feel more and more comfortable on the bike, mainly thanks to my mechanics, who are doing and incredible job. To start from the first row in our first Moto2 Grand Prix is a very good result and I will do my best tomorrow. We still have to see how the bike works in race conditions and with a full tank, but I hope I will be able to have a good start. In Moto2 the start is a bit more complicate, but I hope everything goes well. We are gathering experience and that’s the most important thing”.
