Marc Márquez and Joan Mir miss out on going directly into Q2 for the Malaysian Grand Prix after finishing fifteenth and sixteenth, respectively.
With a lot of humidity in the atmosphere and the absence of rain, the Sepang International Circuit hosted the first day of action for the Malaysian Grand Prix on Friday.
On a track that is not favourable to his riding style, Marc Márquez was able to improve from one session to the next, but without achieving any great reward. The Repsol Honda Team rider spent more than half of the PR among the ten best times but could not find a hot lap to put him into Q2 when other riders put in late time attacks.
Márquez set the fifteenth best lap of the day with a 1:58.788.
Q2 entry continued to elude Joan Mir. The Repsol Honda team rider improved in the second session but was again outside the ten best times of the day.
With some problems and a top lap of 1:58.902, Mir was sixteenth, meaning he will also have to compete in Q1 on Saturday.
Saturday’s sprint race will take place at 15h local time.
MARC MÁRQUEZ – 15th 1’58.788
“At some tracks we have the one lap speed and not the pace, but here it is the opposite, and our pace is quite good, but the one lap speed is not there. It was a day that we were expecting, so it is not a big surprise. I started both sessions well but couldn’t find that extra bit when we switched to the time attack. Qualifying will be very important, with two races starts this year, so I will keep giving my 100% to see what’s possible in Q1.”
JOAN MIR – 16th 1’58.902
“It’s a pretty similar Friday to what we have had throughout the year honestly. It’s difficult to make big steps here, the grip changed a lot here over the course of the day and I felt pretty good with the second and third tyres we used in the afternoon. Tomorrow we will keep trying to improve and giving our all, hopefully we can be close to the spots moving into Q2. It will be important to see what the weather does as well.”
