Marc Márquez ended just 158 milliseconds away from a new pole position –he has taken 7 out of a possible 11 this season – in a thrilling last ten minutes of the qualifying for the Grand Prix of San Marino and Riviera di Rimini. After registering the best time in this morning’s free practice and second yesterday afternoon, today Márquez has again secured a place on the front row of the grid, the main objective on this track where the first turn is very close to the start, from which he will start second.
In Misano, it is especially important to start from the front row if you want to be a contender in the battle for victory or at the least, a podium finish. The first turn, as well as being narrow, is very close to the start, so in order to avoid the usual and dangerous mass of riders at the start of the race, it is best to start from the front row. Therefore, it is mission accomplished for Marc Márquez, who will be accompanied by Smith, with the best time, and his two rivals in the fight for the title – fellow Spaniards Terol and Espargaró –.
The young Repsol rider was the fastest in this morning’s practice, smashing the circuit record, which he left at 1 minute, 43 seconds and 77 milliseconds. In the qualifying, Márquez again started off setting the pace and topped the timesheets in the first few laps, although still a long way off the times set in the practice session. In the second half of the session, the young Spanish rider was the first to ride at under one minute and 44 seconds, demonstrating a good race pace for tomorrow. He did a series of fast laps, which Terol and Smith responded to by lowering their times, but without managing to beat his.
Finally, in the last minute, Bradley Smith did a fast lap, beating Márquez by 158 milliseconds, who ran out of time to respond to the British rider. Despite not taking a new pole, Emilio Alzamora’s protégé showed that he was satisfied with the result of the qualifying and although he will finish defining the set-up in tomorrow’s warm-up after analysing the data collected today, he trusts that he will be able to have a good race tomorrow.
Marc Márquez, 1’43.487 sec, 33 laps, 139 KM. >> Audio
“I think that starting from the front row, in the 125cc category, is good. At the end, we didn’t want to risk it too much so as not to fall. We have a good set-up, although perhaps I felt a bit more comfortable in this morning’s free practice. It was obvious that Nico [Terol] was also struggling a bit, so perhaps the track conditions were not the same. Anyway, we have our ideas quite clear for the race and I think that if we continue along the same line in the warm-up tomorrow, we’ll be able to resolve these details. You never know if it will be a group race or if some riders will break away because if you get caught up with a rival at the start, others can break away, but it seems clear that here we are all on a similar level.”
