Alex Rins to start from second row and Alex Marquez from row five.
Tomorrow a good start will be required if Alex Rins and Alex Marquez are to fight for the top positions in the Australian GP. Rins, chasing the lead of the Moto3 standings, will start from the second line of attack and will have to control the movements of title rivals Luis Salom and Maverick Viñales ahead of him. Marquez starts from the fifth row and will have to make a perfect getaway if he is to sneak into the leading group before they escape from the rest of the field.
In the morning practice session, Marquez set the eighth fastest time and Rins the ninth, both 1 second off top man Viñales. In the afternoon qualifying session, Rins salvaged a difficult situation after running off track on the final corner. Despite this incident, the Spaniard finally scored a best time of 1:37.382, placing fifth and 0.492s off poleman Luis Salom .
Marquez did not fare so well in qualifying. He did not find the best setup for the fast corners of the Australian track and was thirteenth for tomorrow’s race. He will head row five.
Alex Rins >> Audio
FP3 – 1:37.720, 19 laps, 85 km.
QP – 1:37.382, 18 laps, 80 km.
“This weekend has been quite similar to the Malaysian Grand Prix so far and it’s hard for us to find a good pace. After this morning’s free practice we analysed the data from all the sessions, until we found some settings that have allowed us to go much faster in qualifying. I have a good pace for the race. It is also possible that someone might escape, because people have gone pretty fast during practice. That in theory will make the groups quite large, so if we start to get in each other’s way, it is possible that those in the front group will break away.”
Alex Marquez >> Audio
FP3 – 1:37.650, 20 laps, 89 km.
QP – 1:37.875, 18 laps, 80 km.
“It has been a difficult day. This morning we tried some things that worked and we improved a bit, but the other riders have also done so and we were more or less in the same position as yesterday. In the afternoon we continued with more testing, but things didn’t really work for us and I did not feel comfortable with the bike, so tomorrow we have to continue to look for improvements in the warm up. I do not have much pace, so the race will be difficult. I’ll have to be focused from the start and see if we can move a little further up the order.”
