Repsol rider makes Saturday progress and is only denied pole by 69 thousandths of a second at Italian Grand Prix.
The starting grid for the Moto2 Italian Grand Prix will see Marc Márquez starting from the middle of the front row at Mugello. The Spaniard clocked the second fastest time in qualifying on Saturday and had to be alert to the presence of traffic on track, taking a time just 69 thousandths of a second down on Pol Espargaró at the conclusion of the session.
In the third free practice, the Repsol rider wasted little time in beating his times from yesterday and taking a speedy lap of 1’52.867. That time occurred on his fifth of nineteen laps in the morning run. Working on suspension settings and tyre choice, Márquez would not match that time for the remainder of the session and wound up in second —behind Thomas Luthi.
Without dropping the intensity in the slightest, the Repsol rider came out strong right from the first minute of qualifying. He only needed four laps to best his time from free practice by nearly half a second. The Spaniard stopped the clock at 1’52.438, a time that he attempted to improve upon later in the session but was held up by traffic.
Marc Márquez >> Audio
FP3 – 1:53.478, 19 laps, 100 km.
QP – 1:52.438, 20 laps, 105 km.
“We felt good today, because we rode at a very strong pace. Taking pole here at Mugello is difficult, as you need to latch onto other riders in order to slipstream. The traffic that this generates on the track can mess up your lap and you have to be very alert as to where the other riders are. Tomorrow will be a long race, ridden in a group and physically demanding. You have to be very focused at this circuit. The most important thing is that we have a good base for tomorrow and that we are starting from the front row”.
