An unusual second day of practice at the Estoril Circuit; the heavy rain completely altered the competition plans, making it impossible to hold the qualifying sessions. Under these conditions and after this morning’s free practice in which caution prevailed in Marc Márquez’ garage, the Repsol rider will start eleventh tomorrow, the position achieved after combining the times from the practices held today and yesterday.
As happened yesterday, this morning it was raining lightly on the Portuguese track and at nine o’clock, the 125cc riders carefully went out on the soaking track. With wet tyres and a specific set-up for these conditions, Marc Márquez did 14 laps, in which he regained confidence on the Portuguese track, riding comfortably with a wide safety margin.
When the MotoGP and Moto2 third free practices ended and just before the 125cc qualifying session started, it started raining so heavily that the race directors decided to postpone the qualifying. Initially, they planned to move it to after the qualifying sessions of the higher categories but as the heavy rain did not let up, no bike went out on the Portuguese track again.
Given this situation, the starting grid for tomorrow’s race has been defined by combining the times of the three free practice sessions, in which the time achieved this morning will be enough for Márquez to start from the third row, in eleventh place.
Furthermore, today it was announced that the Michel Metraux Trophy, which is traditionally awarded by the IRTA – the association of the teams that take part in the world championship – to the best private rider, goes to Marc Márquez. As all riders are currently in independent teams, now they vote for the rider who has improved the most over the season; a vote which was won by Marc Márquez.
Marc Márquez, 2’05.169 sec, 14 laps, 58 KM >> Audio
“So far it is quite an unusual weekend and the weather conditions are not the best, but they are the same for everyone and we have to adapt. I think that it was right to cancel the qualifying because just before it was about to start, it was raining so much that it was impossible to go out on the track. Perhaps, it was not best for us that it was cancelled because in the morning I felt confident and I think I could have lowered the time but I decided to save myself for the qualifying and lower the pace. But we must be positive because these things happen, I’m not very far back and above all, I think that the most important thing is to be ready for all the conditions we could find tomorrow”.
