Third for Dani Pedrosa and fourth for Marc Marquez in the rain at Misano. Slippery asphalt causes many crashes on Friday.
Friday saw a wet opening day of action at the Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli, in which the MotoGP riders faced some difficult conditions of intense, intermittent rain and a track that offered very little grip. The latter circumstance led to many crashes, though the two Repsol Honda Team riders were able to keep upright during both practice sessions. At the end of the two runouts today, Dani Pedrosa was third and Marc Marquez fourth overall.
In the morning session, the Repsol Honda riders put in few laps. The notable lack of grip on the wet asphalt at Misano caused many crashes, and both Pedrosa and Marquez wisely decided not to take any unnecessary risks as they awaited improved grip levels. Marquez, second, completed only seven laps, and Pedrosa claimed tenth with six laps.
In the afternoon more rain fell on the track, providing more of the same for the second session. The difficulty in getting tyres up to temperature properly led to both Repsol Honda riders opting to continue with their strategy of not taking unnecessary risks, especially considering the improved weather forecast for Saturday and for Sunday morning. Pedrosa set the second fastest time of the second session after completing 12 laps, whilst teammate Marquez was third with 7 laps.
Marc Marquez >> Audio
4th – 1:50.519, 14 laps, 59 km
“Today was a strange day, as it looks like the rest of the weekend will be totally different; there is a chance of some rain tomorrow afternoon, but the race is forecast to be dry on Sunday. So today was a day for doing our homework and only staying out for as long as strictly necessary, because it was very risky and you have to avoid these kinds of situations, at least in my case. I felt good putting in only five or six laps in each run, and as I felt confident I decided not to do much more than that”.
Dani Pedrosa >> Audio
3rd – 1:50.356, 18 laps, 76 km
“Today we were only able to put in a few laps because the track was so slippery. The tyres didn’t have any grip in the morning and we had to change from the intermediate to the soft compound – and even then the problem wasn’t resolved. Tomorrow we will see if we have dry conditions and can get more grip, but I’m sure that this will also be difficult”.
