Rins second and Marquez sixth in solitary Moto3 Friday session.
Spanish motorcycle racing’s young promises kept up the great level shown on Thursday with another stellar performance on Friday. Rins had taken the third fastest time in Moto3 practice on the first night, with Marquez fourth. Tonight both riders were once again at the head of the field in a solitary practice session for the Qatar GP.
Rins once again demonstrated great potential at the Qatari track, which featured tough conditions. A strong wind and a dirty surface was made more complicated by a few drops of rain, although that failed to stop Rins to lead the way with five minutes remaining in the practice session. Only a fast lap from Luis Salom prevented him from topping the tmesheets. On his best lap of the day ─the last of his 11─ he stopped the clock in 2’08.609.
Teammate Alex Marquez also continued to progress on a circuit that was unknown to him before yesterday. In his second night of practice in Losail, Marquez was sixth quickest with a time of 2’09.621. He took that time on lap 11 of 15.
Alex Rins >> Audio
FP3: 2:08.609, 11 laps, 59 km.
“Today we made our first stint on used tyres, in order to find race pace. I tagged onto a group with a lot of riders and I think that it went well, despite us overtaking each other and the conditions on track. On the second run we put on the new tyres and I felt better. When I saw that there were some drops of rain starting to fall, and after a couple of scares, I decided to stop. The points are won on Sunday, not today, and we have a good bike.”
Alex Marquez >> Audio
FP3: 2:09.621, 15 laps, 81 km.
“Today’s practice went rather well. At the start the track was rather dirty; MotoGP had been riding beforehand, but with the wind picking up the track became dirty again in an instant. We were able to put in some more or less good times; albeit slower than yesterday, they were respectable. At the end we tried some things and found a setup that we will use in qualifying, so I am happy. We have a couple of things to adjust on the bike, but we are ready for tomorrow. We will go out positively and hope to finish inside the top ten in order to have a chance of a good race.”
