Repsol Honda Team rider takes second position in qualifying for the Spanish Grand Prix. Teammate Hiroshi Aoyama places sixteenth.
The second day of action at the Jerez circuit decided the grid for the fourth race of the year, with Marc Marquez claiming a place on the front row. The reigning MotoGP World Champion was second in a session topped by Jorge Lorenzo. Hiroshi Aoyama, improving in each session at Jerez, will lead the sixth row in sixteenth position.
In the third and fourth free practice session, Marquez finished seventh and fourth, respectively. He was only 3 tenths off the fastest time in both sessions. A crash in FP4 at the end of the straight meant that he would subsequently take things calmly in qualifying. He chose to run only two stints, instead of the three that gave him pole a year ago, and although he was quickest in the first three sectors of the Jerez track, he was not quite able to best poleman Lorenzo. Marquez eventually secured second place with a time of 1:38.300.
Aoyama, twenty-first in FP3 and eleventh in FP4, had to go into the Q1 session on Saturday afternoon. He finished that session in sixth place, with a time of 1:39.866. Tomorrow he will start from the sixth row on the grid, in sixteenth position.
Marc Marquez >> Audio
2nd, 1:38.300 sec, 35 laps, 155 km.
“We knew it would be hard work to get onto the front row. That was the goal and we succeeded, so I am very happy about that, but we also know that tomorrow will be a difficult race and it will be hard to finish the 27 laps. On the other hand, today I was able to ride without painkillers and tomorrow I will be using them. We had prepared three sets of tyres to use in the qualifying session, however, after the crash, I preferred not to push things and we used just the two –but we could not make it onto pole.”
Hiroshi Aoyama >> Audio
16th, 1:39.866 sec, 40 laps, 177 km.
“We tried something different in the setup today but this morning we went in the wrong direction. Then this afternoon we changed things and I felt better on the bike again and was able to go faster. In qualifying we used the softer tyres and although I made a small mistake I still improved my lap time and took 16th on the grid, which is better than yesterday. I am confident with our pace for race distance as I feel better on the harder tyre so we will see how the conditions are tomorrow.”
