Alex Rins will start tomorrow from third place and Alex Marquez in fourth after progress in the third practice session.
Everything is going according to plan within the team led by Emilio Alzamora. The two riders, Rins and Marquez, swapped turns at the front of the pack during each practice session of the weekend, demonstrating that Honda are adapting to the technical specifications of this particular circuit.Tomorrow, Alex Rins will start from the first row of the grid after fighting to the last lap of the qualifying session for the fastest time against the Australian Miller, the winner of the first race in Qatar. Teammate Alex Marquez has also been very competitive in the qualifying session, setting the fourth fastest time.
In the last free practice session held this morning, Marquez was second behind Efren Vazquez by just 0.636, with Rins following by 0.765, both setting their best time on lap 14 of 14.
During qualifying, Miller set the fastest time and will head the grid ahead of Efren Vazquez and Rins. The Repsol rider set a best time of 2 minutes, 16 seconds and 898 milliseconds, 0.556 off the Australian leader. Teammate Alex Marquez, concentrating on the development of the Honda, also appeared very competitive this afternoon, marking a time of 2 minutes, 17 seconds and 352 thousandths to put him on the second row in fourth position for tomorrow’s race, which will begin at 11:00am local time.
Alex Rins >> Audio
3rd, 2’16.898, 14 laps, 77.182km
“I’m happy with the bike and with the result. We struggled to find a comfortable setting in this circuit, but we already have a good pace and I think the only thing we lacked today is making a good lap. Today I was always alone on the track and we couldn’t lower our times any more. For tomorrow’s race, we know that Miller is one step ahead, so we will try not to let him get away also, if Efren [Vazquez] is in our group, we know that he can make things difficult.”
Alex Marquez >> Audio
4rd, 2’17.352, 14 laps, 77.182km
“This morning we made a step forward, but we still have room for improvement and we will continue this way in the warm-up, which we hope will be dry. I think that the race is going to be a hard fight and could be among a large group, because you can gain a lot at this track using the slipstream. So tomorrow we will try to be with the front and then see what happens toward the end, when the tires are more worn.”
