The concluding pre-season test of 2015 has begun in Qatar’s Losail circuit. The track opened at 16h00 local time but Marc Marquez and Dani Pedrosa waited to take to the 5.4km track until 18h30 and 19h00 respectively, when conditions were more similar to the race weekend sessions.
As expected the track was very dirty and it took some laps from all the MotoGP riders to clean the sand and create a defined racing line. The conditions slowly improved and allowed both riders to work on general setup as well some clutch settings.
Marc finished the day in 3rd with his time of 1’55.554 on lap 23 of 44. Dani finished 5th – just 0.259 off Marc – with his time of 1:55.813 on lap 31 of 33.
Testing will resume tomorrow from 16h00 – 23h00 local time.
Marc Márquez >> Audio
“I am happy with how today went. In Qatar you always have to be careful on the opening day, because the track is more slippery than normal, but today it was fairly good and you could go fast – although tomorrow we are definitely expecting it to improve further. Today we worked on a few small things such as the clutch and brakes, in order to draw conclusions. Now we have two days ahead in which to focus on our setup.”
Dani Pedrosa >> Audio
“In Qatar the first day is always difficult due to the conditions of the track. As more rubber is laid down, the grip improves and it becomes cleaner and more comfortable to ride. Hopefully tomorrow the track surface will already be better so we are able to test more things on the bike.”
