Repsol rider heads front row at Italian GP with new circuit record. Teammate Marquez to take off from second row in sixth.
For the fifth time in six races, Alex Rins will start a Grand Prix from the front row this weekend. The Spaniard will do so from the head of the grid, courtesy of his first pole position since the season opener in Qatar. He was the top rider in qualifying at Mugello despite a crash in the middle of the session. Teammate Alex Marquez will round off the second row at the Italian Grand Prix, after dominating the morning practice session but encountering heavy traffic in the grid-deciding runout.
Alex Rins was excellent in qualifying for the Italian Grand Prix, beating the Mugello circuit record by more than half a second with a 1’56.999 lap. A crash on entry to Turn 2 with 16 minutes remaining meant that he missed practically the rest of the session, although nobody was able to best his time. Alex Marquez had been setting a great pace in the third practice session, but in the final minutes of qualifying he encountered heavy traffic, as riders looked for a tow down the long Mugello start/finish straight. He closed the day with a top time of 1’57.881, putting him sixth.
With the starting grid decided, everything is in place for Sunday’s 11am start to the sixth Moto3 round of 2014 –at a track where Rins and Marquez finished second and fifth, respectively, in 2013.
Álex Rins >> AUDIO
1st, 1:56.999 sec, 29 laps, 152 km
“I want to dedicate this pole position to my team, for everything they are doing for me this season and for what they did today: Repairing my bike in 5 or 6 minutes. I am very happy, although it wasn’t a very ‘true’ pole because I wasn’t alone when I set my time –I was behind Miller. We will start at the front tomorrow and will try to get off the line well. I don’t think that we can break away from the group, because we don’t have such a high pace, but if we ride a clever race then we can do a good job.”
Álex Márquez >> AUDIO
6th, 1:57.881 sec, 33 laps, 173 km
“I think that this was a positive second day. In the practice session we were on top and had a great pace. We knew that slipstreams would be key to qualifying, because in Moto3 you can easily gain half a second on the straight and also if you have another rider as a reference on the fast corners. However, we didn’t have much luck. I think that the pace that I have by myself is not bad, and in the end tomorrow we will be on the second row –it’s no drama. I will try to start well and push, because I think that we have the pace to fight for the podium.”
