World Championship leader crashes minutes from the end of qualifying but keeps position on the grid. Alex Rins places seventeenth after a morning crash.
A crash for Alex Marquez with five minutes remaining in qualifying did not stop the Repsol rider from taking a spot on the second row for tomorrow’s race. His teammate, Alex Rins, starts from the sixth row after a difficult Saturday, which saw him crash in the morning.
Third in the final practice session and displaying a good pace, Alex Marquez’ day ended on a downer as he crashed late on in qualifying. The Repsol rider was taking Turn 6 of the Sepang circuit when his front wheel slipped out, and he could not avoid a crash. Despite there being time remaining, no rider was able to overtake him on the timesheet and Marquez will start the Malaysian GP from fifth on the grid. He was 8 tenths off pole position, claimed by his main title rival Jack Miller. Marquez would win the World Championship tomorrow if he claims 6 more points than his rival.
Teammate Alex Rins had a tough start to the day. On his first flying lap of the morning, he suffered a crash at Turn 1 that slowed him for the remainder of the session –in which he put in few further laps. In the afternoon qualifying session a lack of setup confirmation worked against him, and additionally he could not find a clear run at a hot lap due to heavy traffic. Rins will start from the sixth row, in seventeenth.
The Moto3 race will start tomorrow at 1pm local time, with the Moto3 title at stake.
Alex Rins >> Audio
17th, 2’14.444 Sec., 18 Laps, 100 Km.
“It has certainly been a day to forget. We changed one aspect of the bike to brake later and on the first stint I was already able to stop the bike better; maybe that’s why I fell when I went a little wide. In addition, I was going round the outside and I clipped Gardner. I didn’t do myself too much damage, but I would like to apologise to the team. In the qualifying session we could not really put in a flying lap, so tomorrow we will have to make a good start to put us at the front.”
Alex Marquez >> Audio
5th, 2’13.315 Sec., 27 Laps, 150 Km.
“The second day at Sepang has also been positive. My feeling with the bike and my pace are very good. In the morning we took an important step forward with the setup and I felt good. We knew that the afternoon session would be a little crazy, like in Australia -where we did a perfect lap- but here we could not find do likewise. What matters is that we are well prepared for the race, so it will be important for the title to finish ahead of Miller.”
