Repsol rider makes notable improvement over course of Saturday practice sessions and will start from fourth at Brno. Faulty tyre impedes him on hot lap.
Consistent hard work in the garage for Marc Márquez allowed the Repsol rider to overcome the difficulties experienced yesterday and improve his chances of victory tomorrow. However, when looking for a front row spot for the Czech Republic Grand Prix, the Spaniard was hit by a tyre problem that prevented him from consolodating his good feeling with a fast time. He will take off from fourth, heading the second row. Pol Espargaró will be on pole.
In the third practice session, Márquez took a big step forward in his pursuit of the leading riders of the weekend. The Repsol rider improved lap after lap, until on his fifteenth of eighteen laps he stopped the clock at 2’02.983 —0.395 off Pol Espargaró.
With the threat of rain a constant on Saturday, a few drops fell in the Moto3 practice to prove as much. Márquez took no chances, starting the Moto2 qualifying run with intent. He dominated the opening half of the session, clocking a time of 2’02.342. He put in two 5-lap stints and upped his pace, up until he came across the misfortune of a faulty tyre on his final run. That meant that he could not improve his grid position and would have to settle for fourth and a second row start.
Marc Márquez >> Audio
FP3 – 2:02.983, 18 laps, 97 km.
QP – 2:02.342, 19 laps, 102 km.
“I am happy, because on my opening two stints I felt very comfortable. However, this wasn’t reflected on the timesheet. We worked on our race pace in order to get a good setup for tomorrow and I think that we can fight up at the front —if we can replicate our performance from the start of the session. It is a shame that our final run was performed on a defectuous rear tyre, because I was riding very comfortably and those new tyres gave us a lot of chatter. I was going a second slower but felt like I was at the limit, but these things happen”.
