Spaniard dominates in qualifying, leading for practically the entire session. Alex Marquez improves pace for seventh.
Tomorrow will be a very important day, and for this reason Alex Rins made his intentions clear in Saturday’s qualifying session. With pole position, Rins dominated the timesheets and was only behind Maverick Viñales for a mere instant. Alongside the Repsol rider on the front row will be his two title rivals: Luis Salom –0.016 slower than Rins– and Viñales –0.285 back. Alex Marquez made a big improvement from Friday and will start from seventh, occupying a spot on the third row of the grid.
In the morning practice session both Rins and Marquez used their track time to find the best setup for their bikes. Rins was fourth quickest and Marquez seventh.
In the afternoon qualifying session, Rins was determined to give no quarter to his rivals, setting the fastest time of the run. He led the way from the start, although Viñales attempted to sneak pole position in the final minutes. Rins fired back with an unbeaten time to clinch the top spot. Alex Marquez placed seventh, a second behind Rins, but can expect a good result tomorrow after his considerable improvement.
Alex Rins >> Audio
FP3 – 1:40.222, 12 laps, 48 km.
QP – 1:39.459, 19 laps, 76 km.
“Today went very well for us. We have found a great pace for tomorrow, but the important thing is what happens in the race, where everything can change. We shall see how it goes for us. I think that we have a good setup; we don’t know what the race will be like, but I hope it will be fun. I’m calm at the moment and I hope that tonight I can be the same after a good night’s sleep.”
Alex Marquez >> Audio
FP3 – 1:40.662, 18 laps, 72 km.
QP – 1:40.474, 17 laps, 68 km.
“Yesterday we had a lot of mechanical problems and various parts broke, but today we were able to find solutions. We’ve found things harder than expected, right from the start, but in tomorrow’s warmup session we will try to find that boost which can help us to be more consistent –and take us up to the lead group. It’s going to be tough to keep up with them tomorrow, but we will give 110% in order to get there.”
