Alex Marquez improves times from yesterday, placing tenth due to traffic on track late on in qualifying.
On a colder day than yesterday, the Moto3 riders completed the second day of practice for the German Grand Prix on Saturday. In the morning practice session and with the threat of rain present, Rins took the second fastest time –behind Salom– and Marquez was ninth.
In the qualifying session, the two Repsol riders led the way on the early laps, with Marquez third and Rins fifth. With 26 minutes to go, Rins rose to provisional pole –a position that he maintained until the end and added to his top spot tally. It was his third pole of 2013, repeating those of Austin and Jerez, and his fourth in short GP career.
Teammate Marquez was not able to improve upon his times on the last laps of the session, due to heavy traffic on track. However, the youngster is confident of his pace and is ready to have a strong race tomorrow.
Alex Rins >> Audio
FP3 – 1:27.407, 21 laps, 77 km.
QP – 1:27.300, 22 laps, 81 km.
“Today we had a great workout, but we all know that the points are decided tomorrow and not today. It will be a tough race, but we will start from pole. There are many riders with the pace to keep up at the front and we will have to improve a few things from previous races. In particular, we will have to watch out for the final laps, which are where we’ve been losing out recently. We are positive about tomorrow because we have a good pace on our own and the team are working well.”
Alex Marquez >> Audio
FP3 – 1:28.063, 21 laps, 77 km.
QP – 1:27.818, 22 laps, 81 km.
“The second day in Germany went quite well for us. We have taken steps forward and that’s the most important thing, because on each run we improved our times. I think we have a good pace for tomorrow, but we have to finish off improving some details of the setup. I’m not entirely happy with tenth on the grid, as I was improving my times before I hit traffic. Tomorrow we will try to make a good start, slot into the front group and try to stick with it for as long as we can.”
