The Repsol rider improves progressively in the shortest track of the World Championship, where the differences are set in thousandths
In a peculiar circuit, very different from the ones the World Championship usually visits, Marc Márquez passed with flying colours his first contact with the Sachsenring on a Moto2. As he has been doing since the start of his fist season at the World Championship’s intermediate category, the Repsol rider started with caution, studying the track and taking reference points for the class, finishing the day with the eighth position of the timesheets.
Márquez started the first practice session adapting his bike’s setup to the special features of Sachsenring circuit, which is very technical and slow in the first part and fast and with more open bends in the second half. Trying to find a compromise together with his team, the Repsol rider changed the configuration of the suspensions to improve his times lap after lap and finished the first session in thirteenth.
In the second session, Márquez kept reducing tenths and focusing on keeping a good pace in the traffic of the German circuit. In such a short track and with 39 riders, being able to do a lap without rivals slowing you down is nearly impossible. Under those conditions, the differences between the riders are minimal, as it is shown by the fact that the 25 first finished within the same second. After 24 laps, the Repsol rider stopped the clock with a time of 1 minute, 25 seconds and 628 thousandths, only 170 thousandths behind the fastest, who was the Swiss rider Thomas Luthi.
Marc Márquez >> Audio
FP1 – 1:26.345, 23 laps, 84 km.
FP2 – 1:25.628, 24 laps, 88 km.
“I am fairly happy, because we started this weekend following the same line as in the previous ones; in the first practice it is always difficult and in the second we are closer. I hope we can keep improving tomorrow, because it is clear that this circuit is a little unusual and it is very important to find the good set-up. We still had to ridden in a track similar to this, so slow and with a first part with so many corners where you need to keep very good lines to make a difference. The important thing is to find a good compromise in the set-up that allows you to be comfortable in the first part, but also on the second, where the corners are faster. The positive thing is that in the afternoon I felt much more comfortable, we are progressing and we still have margin to improve. In this circuit you notice the traffic a lot more than in other tracks, but I was able to ride well and focus on my own pace, but we must keep it in mind for tomorrow’s qualifying session”
