First and second rows for Repsol Honda riders at round four of the season.
Dani Pedrosa went from eight in FP3, to fourth in FP4, to second in Q2.
Marc Márquez topped the first session of the day, before going third in FP4 despite a crash at Turn 2.
The six riders from second to seventh were separated by just 0.075s.
MARC MÁRQUEZ | 5th 1’37.977 sec.
“Honestly, I’m not satisfied with my qualifying. I’m actually referring to myself, as today I wasn’t able to find the ‘perfect lap.’ I set my fastest time in my first run, when I rode more smoothly and calmly; then I made many mistakes and couldn’t improve on it. On the other hand, the second row isn’t that bad, and we have a good pace. Of course the race won’t be easy as there are other riders—starting with my teammate—who are capable of keeping a good pace on a medium or hard rear tyre. It will be a long, tough race. Today was already quite hot, and it looks like the temperature will rise even more tomorrow. We saw many crashes in all the classes, as the track is becoming quite slippery, so we’ll have to adjust the setup to these conditions, choose the right rear tyre, and try to do our best.”
DANI PEDROSA | 2nd 1’37.912 sec.
“I’m surprised and happy to be on the front row, which is always important here. I wish to thank my team for all the hard work this weekend. When you’re not 100% physically fit, it’s not easy to find the best feeling on the bike, but the team is helping a lot and I appreciate it. Now we have to focus on choosing the right tyre for the race, as we haven’t decided that yet. It looks like several riders have a good pace, so tomorrow we’ll have to focus a lot on ourselves and try to get a good start. The race this year will be two laps shorter and that’s important, but we must see what conditions we’ll have and what we’re able to do.”
