Repsol Honda Team rider tops all three sessions on Saturday, with Dani Pedrosa fourth and overcoming difficulties from free practice.
Marc Marquez was the standout on the second day of practice for the Australian Grand Prix, topping both practice sessions on Saturday and taking pole position in qualifying. Teammate Dani Pedrosa had more difficulties in the two free practice runs, but was in contention for the front row of the grid until the last moment in qualifying. He will finally head the second row, thanks to fourth position.
Showing a much faster pace than the rest of the MotoGP class, Marquez was first in both FP3 and the FP4 on Saturday. Pedrosa was eighteenth and seventh, respectively, in those sessions. In qualifying, Marquez took the initiative from the start and, although he had a scare with his second tire, with his third choice he stopped the clock at 1:28.364. That gave him yet another pole position for his collection, and he will head the grid at Phillip Island on Sunday.
Pedrosa made improvements in the qualifying session and was up into second on his last lap, 0.348s off his teammate. However, before the end, Andrea Iannone and Jorge Lorenzo ousted him from the front row and he will start the Australian GP from fourth.
The race takes place on Sunday at 4pm local time ‒7am CET.
Marc Márquez >>AUDIO>>
1st, 1:28.364,43laps,191km
“I am pleased with how the day went, and of course with pole position! Thanks to the team for all their work, we have a good pace for tomorrow and we are ready to fight for the podium and hopefully the victory tomorrow. However we must wait and see what happens, because here every day is different; it can be sunny but then all of a sudden clouds can appear, and the key will be interpreting how the track conditions are, in order to have a good race.”
Dani Pedrosa>>AUDIO>>
4th, 1:28.712,43laps,191km
“Today was a difficult day, especially in the morning. It was quite cold and very windy, and I had problems in FP3, which did not go well. FP4 went somewhat better, although my pace was still not amongst the fastest. However, in the qualifying session we managed to improve a lot, finally setting a good lap time and qualifying well.”
