Second in the third free practice session, the Repsol rider barely did very few laps n the qualifying, under intermittent rain, to avoid any risks
After the unfortunate day he had yesterday, during today’s practice Marc Márquez focused on preparing in the best possible way for tomorrow’s race, in which he will start from the last place of the grid due to the penalty he received due to the accident with Wilairot. The Repsol rider was second in the third free practice and did very few laps in the qualifying session, held under an intermittent rain that did not encourage to take risks.
The two crashes and the time lost yesterday forced Marc Márquez to work hard today in the set-up of his Moto2 for tomorrow’s race. In the morning’s free practice session, the Repsol rider and his team were able to improve the Suter’s settings to improve his feelings at the Australian track and reduce in almost one second the time he set yesterday, stopping the clock in 1 minute, 24 seconds and 541 thousandths, 205 thousandths behind Alex De Angelis, who set the fastest time.
The rider from San Marino was also the fastest in qualifying, which took place with the always disconcerting presence of rain. From the first minutes of the session, the intermittent rain together with the gusting wind did not offer a lot of confidence on the asphalt of Phillip Island, which reached 25ºC. Under those conditions, Márquez only did eight lap, knowing that the track would not offer the required conditions to improve the set-up of his bike and, due to the penalty, he would not have to fight for a good place on the grid, so there was no need to take risks.
Marc Márquez >> Audio
FP3 – 1:34.541, 18 laps, 80 km.
QP – 2:35.198, 8 laps, 36 km.
“We forgot about yesterday and planned the practice in a completely different way. We were able to improve progressively and for that I have to thank the team and Suter for their efforts to give me a bike as the one I had, completely new. This helped me a lot and in the end we found a good set-up, which gives me confidence for tomorrow to try to recover the lost ground. Naturally, we cannot prepare the race as a normal Grand Prix, but we have to focus on doing a good start, improve lap after lap and do our own race. I think that if we keep the concentration and stay calmed, we will be able to improve our position a lot”.
