Spanish rider makes continual improvement in opening free practice sessions for Indianapolis Grand Prix, with teammate Alex Rins twelfth.
Alex Marquez started the first day of practice for the tenth round of the Moto3 World Championship strongly, setting the second fastest time of the day with teammate, Alex Rins, twelfth. The weather took centre stage in Indianapolis on Friday, with rain making an appearance and complicating the work of technicians and riders at a recently-modified Indianapolis circuit.
In the morning, in the first practice session of the weekend, Marquez placed fourteenth and Rins twentieth. With the circuit dampened by light intermittent rain, the riders went out on track with wet tyres. Five minutes from the end, the asphalt dried completely and they were able to use slicks.
In the second round, times improved considerably. Despite light rain, the bikes on track established a dry line and Alex Marquez lowered his top lap time from the morning by just over 5 seconds. He set a time of 1:42.604 milliseconds, which put him in second place on the overall timesheets and just 0.097s off the day’s fastest man, Isaac Viñales. Rins also lowered his time from FP1 by 5 and a half seconds, closing the day with a 1:43.692 time 1.185s down on Viñales.
Tomorrow will see the final practice session and then, at 12:35pm local time, qualifying for the Indianapolis Grand Prix.
Alex Rins >> Audio
12th – 1:43.692, 32 laps, 133 km.
“It was a strange day. We were almost always riding in the rain and that is something that affects you. Personally, I noticed that you cannot use the same lines or open the gas at the same places in the wet. But from what I can see, I like the new layout better than last year’s and I think it’s safer. If tomorrow the weather is good and the track is dry, we can do well”.
Alex Marquez >> Audio
2nd – 1:42. 604, 31 laps, 129 km
“I’m happy because the first day after the summer break went very well. It was a day that was a little strange because of the weather. Early in the morning session it was wet, after that it dried out and in the afternoon we were using slicks when it rained heavily. At this circuit, perhaps because of the new asphalt, it seems that the track does not get really wet and we can go fast regardless. The second position we took is not important, we are happier about the feeling that we had, which was very good. Tomorrow we will try to improve on some points, but I think that this first day went well”.
