Marquez rockets to Q2 with sixth fastest time
Misano World Circuit Marco SimoncelliFully focused on the weekend at hand, Marc Marquez earned passage directly to Q2 with an impressive sixth in on Friday. Repsol Honda Team teammate Joan Mir, within a second of Marquez.
1.5 seconds split 22 of the riders on the MotoGP World Championship grid as Friday’s action came to a close in Misano. Hot temperatures kept the entirety of the field working hard as they pushed for faster and faster times, the outright lap record falling during the afternoon session.
Marc Marquez continued to make headlines during the Gran Premio Red Bull di San Marino e Della Riviera as he took sixth overall. A best time of 1’31.217 means that the eight-time World Champion will automatically qualify inside the top 12, achieving his first goal of the weekend already. But Marquez is still looking for more as he aims to improve his feeling on the Honda RC213V and ride in a more natural way.
The other side of the Repsol Honda Team garage saw Joan Mir make steady improvements over Friday’s two sessions. Ultimately finishing with a best time of 1’32.141, Mir was just over half a second from a spot in the top ten. Big improvements came as the day progressed, especially with turning and the #36 was left content with the work he and the team achieved – even if his final position on the timing sheet did not fully reflect it.
Tomorrow presents both Repsol Honda Team riders with another chance to continue making improvements and closing the distance to the front. Action resumes at 10:10 Local Time before riders switch their attention to a single flying lap in Qualifying.
Ultimately today was a positive day because we achieved our target for the weekend: qualifying in the top 12. I need to keep on working on my feeling with the bike, it’s still not quite there but we were able to do the lap time. It was a calm day because at the start I was not getting the feedback from the bike, the tyres, the track that I wanted but we worked to improve it. In the last part of the afternoon session, I really pushed for a time and we were able to make a step, especially with used tyres. I then got a good lap behind Dani – he was super-fast. Tomorrow is another day.
The day started a bit more difficult than what we thought. I started today with the base from Montmelo and I was struggling with turning but we kept working and the feeling improved. We made a big step and I think I had a 31.7 in me if we were able to put a whole lap together without yellow flags etc. Then if you can catch another rider for the slipstream, you gain even more time and are able to challenge for the top ten. Our situation is better than what the results show and overall we take it as a positive day because we understood a lot.
