Alex Rins third on Saturday and Alex Marquez tenth in Italian qualifying.
The two students of Emilio Alzamora had a positive second day at Mugello. Whilst on Friday they had been affected by unstable weather conditions, today with the elevation of temperatures both Repsol riders were able to make considerable improvements to their times.
In the morning, Rins made great improvements to his Friday laps and was fourth at the end of the session. His teammate, Marc Marquez, made successful adjustments to his setup and was eleventh fastest.
In the afternoon qualifying session, both riders were speedy from the get-go. Rins rapidly moved into sixth and Marquez was eleventh. The fight for the front row was contested between some less habitual candidates, as Antonelli, Oliveira and Miller joined Salom, Folger, Viñales and Rins. On the final lap of the session, Folger and Viñales were fastest, followed by Rins as he took third on the grid with a time of 1’58.046. Teamate Marquez was also able to climb up the order, and will start his first race at Mugello from tenth.
Alex Rins >> Audio
FP3: 1:59.220, 14 laps, 73 km.
QP: 1:58.046, 17 laps, 89 km.
“We are fairly happy with our work today. Yesterday we were a step behnd and we needed to work hard as a team in order to place third today. I was lacking a little focus, but when the bike responds well, everything is easier. For tomorrow, I think that it will be a difficult race, as the track is very technical and fast. We have to concentrate, most of all, because there will be a lot of riders up at the front. It will be important to get a good start and to keep calm. I think that we have a lot of possibilities, as it will be a race run in groups and we will try to do the best possible.”
Alex Marquez >> Audio
FP3: 2:00.378, 15 laps, 79 km.
QP: 1:59.211, 17 laps, 89 km.
“In the first session of the day we took a big step forward, as I was riding at a good pace on my own. In the afternoon we knew that we could improve, and myself and Alex Rins worked as a team -that helped me out a lot. In the qualifying session I tried to push to the end and I know that I could still improve a little, but tenth place isn’t bad. We still need to try a few things in the warmup tomorrow, but I am rather happy with the bike and think that we can have a good race. We know that the start will be very important. We’ll see if we can get up to the front and open up a gap to the riders behind us. We know that it will be a tough race, and we hope that the weather favours us.”
