Dani Pedrosa finished third in qualifying, while a crash relegated World Champion Marquez to fifth on the grid for tomorrow’s race.
The closing curtain of the 2014 MotoGP season will fall tomorrow at the Circuito de la Comunitat Valenciana Ricardo Tormo, following a race in which Dani Pedrosa and Marc Marquez will start from the first and second rows, respectively. The reigning World Champion was out of contention for pole position after he crashed during the final minutes of the session. Marquez will start fifth, behind his fellow Repsol Honda teammate starting from third.
The free practice in the morning saw Marc Marquez leading the timesheet, improving on his times from yesterday despite a fall in turn five midway through the outing. Dani Pedrosa also took a step forward from yesterday’s practice round, finishing the session in sixth position. While they finished first and second in the fourth outing, Marquez and Pedrosa did not begin the final qualifying quite as positively.
At the start of the session, and on the first tyre, Pedrosa was briefly situated in sixth with Marquez seventh. Later, in the final outing, World Champion Marquez was running in second with a fastest time of 1:31.144, but a lap later, a crash in Turn 4 forced him down three positions upon the session close. Pedrosa was able to improve during his final fast lap, setting a time of 1:30.999, and will start tomorrow’s race from third position, on a first row led by Valentino Rossi.
The final MotoGP race of the year starts tomorrow at 14:00h CET.
Marc Marquez >> Audio
5th – 1:31.144, 39 laps, 156 km
“On the one hand I’m happy, because we have a great pace and a great setup for tomorrow, but on the other hand I am a little annoyed that I made a mistake in qualifying. I apologise to the team, because we could have fought for pole position. I made one mistake on the first stint and another on the second, causing me to crash. You learn from these things and I’ll go out tomorrow looking to enjoy the race, because we are ready to battle for the win.”
Dani Pedrosa >> Audio
3rd – 1:30.999, 46 laps, 184 km
“It was a difficult qualifying because there was much more wind than in the morning session. That made it hard to calculate the entry to corners and when to brake. As a result, I made a few mistakes and couldn’t set a good lap at the beginning. Later, when I took the corners with a better line, the tyres were more worn down. At the end I was able to find those two tenths necessary to get onto the front row, so tomorrow we need to make the most of the position and have a good race.”
