Marc Márquez has become the clear master in his own of this season’s practice sessions, in which he has registered the best time in the qualifying session 10 out of a possible 14 times. Furthermore, today in Malaysia, he has become the rider who has claimed the most pole positions in a single season in the history of the 125cc World Championship. Today’s important pole position will allow him to tackle, from the most advantageous spot on the starting grid, tomorrow’s decisive race, the first of the final four awaiting the Repsol rider in the fight for the 125cc World Championship title.
In the morning, in the second free practice of the Grand Prix and above all, with less stifling heat than yesterday on the track – 29ºC air temperature and 33ºC on the track -, Márquez stopped the clock at 2 minutes, 12 seconds and 946 milliseconds, seven-tenths faster than the rider in second place and more than a second ahead of the rider in third. This result demonstrates the deep understanding he has with his team, after shaving more than a second of his best time the previous day.
In the qualifying session, with the temperature six degrees higher and the track at over 50ºC, Márquez demonstrated a good pace for tomorrow’s race, although mid-way through the session he was hindered by the number of riders on the track. However, Emilio Alzamora’s protégé topped the timesheets before pitting again, when Bradley Smith overtook him.
Going back out on the track in second place ten minutes from the end, the Repsol rider was able to overcome the traffic problems on the track, wait for his opportunity and attack at the right time. In the last two laps and with the track clear, Márquez lowered his times, securing his tenth pole position of the season with a time of 2 minutes, 13 seconds and 398 milliseconds.
Marc Márquez, 2’13.398 sec, 28 laps, 155 Km. >> Audio
“I’m not completely happy with today’s practice because I would have liked to have practiced the pace a bit more and do more constant laps. Between the traffic and testing quite a few things it wasn’t possible but the conditions are the same for everyone. We mainly focused on preparing the race, ruling out the things we didn’t need. I think we’ve done a good job, we’ve got the pole and we have the set-up for tomorrow quite clear, both the suspension and tyre choice. In the warm-up, we will finish testing some things but we are ready to fight for victory. It will be difficult to break away at this circuit because there are two very long straights which, with the slipstream, you can benefit from and very long turns on which you can get a reference from a rider, which also helps a lot. We will try to reach the last lap with options for victory but let’s not forget that it will be a physically demanding race”.
