Marc Márquez and Joan Mir suffer crashes during Saturday’s 10-lap race, placing 21st and 23rd, respectively.
Under cloudy skies and with the threat of rain, the Malaysian Grand Prix sprint race was held in dry conditions and with high humidity.
Marc Márquez did not have his best Saturday in Sepang. In the morning, the Repsol Honda Team rider was unable to make it into Q2 and had to start the sprint race from the seventh row on the grid, from 20th.
The eight-time World Champion started the 10 laps by climbing up the order, moving into 13th and maintaining a consistent pace. However, at Turn 14 of the third lap, he suffered a crash that relegated him to last place. In the end, Márquez crossed the finish line 21st.
Joan Mir experienced a similar fate. In the first qualifying session of the day, the Repsol Honda Team rider failed to go through to Q2 as one of the two fastest riders and took 16th position on the grid.
Starting from the sixth row, he tried to gain places at the beginning, but right in the middle of the race, on the fifth lap, he went to ground. He would eventually finish 23rd.
The 20-lap Malaysian Grand Prix will take place at 3pm local time on Sunday.
MARC MÁRQUEZ – 21st
“This is a difficult weekend, our pace has not been too bad but we made a big mistake during Qualifying practice and starting down in 20th is a big battle. In the Sprint race I started really well in the first two laps and made up a lot of positions, but when you push like this you overheat the tyres and I lost the front. We got back up and finished the race, getting the information for the team which is necessary for tomorrow. Finishing 21st or 15th in the Sprint doesn’t really change much. We go again tomorrow.”
JOAN MIR – 23rd
“An intense day with the conditions and what we had to do. I was able to keep improving my feeling throughout the day and our times weren’t too bad as we went into Q1. If we did this time last year we would have been on the front row I think! But we still need to find more speed in Qualifying. Again, starting where we did made the race a bit complicated and falling at the last corner was not ideal. We got back on and finished the race to get as much information as possible for Sunday.”
