Repsol Honda Team riders will take off from fourth and eighth, respectively, for San Marino GP, with both running a strong pace in practice.
Marc Marquez and Dani Pedrosa enjoyed a productive second day of practice for the San Marino Grand Prix. First and ninth, respectively, in the third Free Practice session, come FP4 Pedrosa had moved up to second -despite a light crash. His teammate and MotoGP World Championship leader was not far behind, with both showing a good race pace. In the qualifying session at Misano, the Repsol Honda Team riders were unable to put together hot laps. Marquez finished fourth, half a second off the pole position time set by Jorge Lorenzo, and Pedrosa was eighth and a further 9 tenths down.
Marc Marquez >> Audio
4th, 1:32.443 sec, 46 laps, 194 km.
“I’m happy because I felt strong throughout the day, especially in FP3 and FP4. Actually, I was most comfortable in FP4, which is when you set your race pace. In the qualifying session I felt quite good with the first tyre, but we couldn’t make the most of the second one because there was a lot of traffic and I wasn’t able to put in a perfect lap. The important thing is that we’re on the second row, close to Jorge [Lorenzo] and Valentino [Rossi], and have a good pace going into the race, so we’ll try to fight for the podium.”
Dani Pedrosa >> Audio
8th, 1:32.859 sec, 45 laps, 190 km.
“Today was a positive day because we have improved our race pace by a lot. We will have to concentrate on getting a good start and trying to overtake other riders who do not have much pace early on, because the first part of the track is very narrow and Jorge [Lorenzo] and Valentino [Rossi] have a free run. We hope to move up places quickly so that they do not have much of an advantage, and make the most of the fact that our pace is not bad. We have worked a lot with the tyres and have seen that we do better after a few laps that when they are fresh. At the moment the choice is not entirely clear and we will have to wait until tomorrow.”
