The championship leader dominated every practice session and set pole over half a second ahead of the field. Dani Pedrosa will start from fourth.
As he did in Indianapolis, Marc Marquez left nothing to his rivals, dominating all five practice sessions for the San Marino and Riviera di Rimini Grand Prix at Misano. The Repsol Honda team rider occupied the top spot in the four free practice rounds and, in the final qualifying session, clocked a impossible to beat time: over half a second faster than the second fastest in the field. Teammate, Dani Pedrosa, could not repeat his performance that put him in second place yesterday and will start from the second row in fourth place.
MotoGP championship leader Marquez stunned during the two practice sessions today, being the only driver to dip below one minute and 34 seconds. Not even a minor fall in turn four of the final free practice prevented him from setting the fastest lap in the premier class. That same turn had earlier claimed team mate Dani Pedrosa in the third session, who had finished the session lapping second fastest. After pacing fifth fastest in the final free practice, the Repsol Honda team rider just missed out on a front row position and finished the qualifying with the fourth fastest time.
The qualifying round saw Marquez the only rider to squeeze under the 1 minute and 32 second bar with a 1:32.915, over half a second faster than Lorenzo and Rossi, who will share the front row on the grid with him tomorrow.
Dani Pedrosa >> Audio
FP3 – 1:34.124, 18 laps, 76 km.
QP – 1:33.726, 8 laps, 34 km.
“We had a bit of luck to take fourth on the grid, because we have been having problems with all the rear tyres that we have used. I don’t know exactly what happened, but I didn’t have any grip in any of the sessions today. In the final free practice session we changed the tyres twice, then in qualifying we again switched to new rubber, but there was never a good response. We don’t know if the problem is with the tyres, with the bike or with the track surface. In the final moments we made another change and suddenly I had some grip again, and it is thanks to this that we were able to take the fourth fastest time ‒although this position was certainly short of our aims for today. For tomorrow, however, we are confident that we can get a good start and have a good race.”
Marc Marquez >> Audio
FP3 – 1:33.975, 21 laps, 89 km.
QP – 1:32.915, 9 laps, 38 km.
“I’m very happy with this pole position, as we had a really good hot lap! It’s a shame about the small crash that we had in practice this morning ‒which was completely my fault‒ but the important thing is that we know where I made the mistake. In qualifying I felt very comfortable every time on fast laps and was able to put in some quick times. We’ll see if we can fight with Jorge [Lorenzo] tomorrow, as he has a very good pace. Valentino [Rossi] will also be tough to beat, because it is his home race and he has been very strong in practice; I’m sure that he will be fast tomorrow as will Dani [Pedrosa]. The aim is to get a good start, try to ride in the lead group at the front and pick up more World Championship points.”
