The winner of the British Grand Prix was back in action today, proving to be in very good shape. Márquez satisfactorily completed the first hour of practice for the Dutch Grand Prix, in which he clocked up the second best time, behind Nico Terol and in front of Pol Espargaró.
From the start of the session, Emilio Alzamora’s protégé already appeared at the top of the timesheets, doing several six-lap stints in which he quickly found a pace that allowed him to consistently ride at very competitive times. After 25 laps, Márquez ended the day, happy with his performance, which he finished with a best time of 1 minute, 43 seconds and 403 milliseconds, just 195 milliseconds behind Terol.
Evaluating the first outing on the Dutch track, Márquez has room for improvement and there is still a lot of work to do setting up his machine. The slow zones of the circuit, with such different characteristics to the fast zones that made this track legendary and which celebrates 80 Grand Prix races, demand more care with the setup. After this first session, the Repsol rider will meet his technical team to discuss the changes to make to the adjustments of his machine, changes that will allow him to find the best balance for the demanding Assen track for tomorrow.
Marc Márquez, 1’43.403 sec, 25 laps, 114 km >> Audio
“The practice session has gone quite well. We had good feeling with the bike, which is what counts. Although obviously we still have things to improve, as it’s only Thursday and the first free practice session of the weekend. I think we’re on the right track; we finished near Terol, who was the fastest, and that’s important. Tomorrow will be another day and we’ll try to improve. The track has some very fast turns that demand one type of setup, but there are also some very long and slower turns in which the bike must help you to turn quite a lot, so that’s what we’re working on. We’re looking for a good balance in order to be able to both well”.
