Following yesterday’s double podium finish, Championship leader Marc Marquez and teammate Dani Pedrosa were back on track today for a one-day official post-race test
Both riders suffered small crashes, Dani in turn 2 around 1:30 p.m., Marc later in the afternoon at turn 5. Neither incident involved consequences for the riders, but they were prevented from completing all of the planned tests with Michelin new rear tyres.
Marc set the eighth-quickest time with his lap of 1’45.029 on lap 42 of 77. Dani finished the day 10th with a time of 1’45.379 on lap 21 of 39.
Marc Marquez >> Audio
8th, 1:45.029 sec, 77 laps, 358 km.
“Today I tried out a lot of things, including a chassis and some electronics solutions, and overall, we’ve taken a small step forward today. You always gather a lot of information in a test, which can help you to move forward in the future. With what we’ve learned today, Honda will be able to make their analysis and apply it to the new chassis. The chassis that I tested today was better in some parts of the track, but in others it isn’t entirely suited to my style, so we have to continue working. We have two races coming up at tracks where I’ve always felt very comfortable, so I’m optimistic with that in mind. There are also two weeks between each of them, giving us time to seek further improvements.”
Dani Pedrosa >> Audio
10th, 1:45.379 sec, 39 laps, 181 km.
“We tested various things today, especially with the chassis and a few setups for the electronics and engine to improve our corner exits. Some things we tested worked well and others weren’t yet as good as expected but they gave us more ideas because we’ve found a few positives. We’ll try to keep working with the future in mind; first of all we’re looking at the short term, which is the next race at Assen. There, we’ll try to use some of the feedbacks that we took from today’s test, to see if they work at that track and the coming circuits. Unfortunately I had a crash at midday that meant I could only continue testing with one bike, and I wasn’t able to do many more laps.”
