Repsol Honda Team’s Marc Marquez qualified on the front row for the final race of the 2016 season in Valencia, the Spaniard guiding his RC213V to second on the grid.
Marquez came into this afternoon’s qualifying session as the man to beat after topping the third free practice session with a 1m30.258s, which was just a couple of tenths outside of the outright lap record.
However, the Honda rider had no answer for the pace of his compatriot Jorge Lorenzo on the Yamaha, who set three successive lap record-breaking times in QP2 to claim pole position.
After aborting his first lap because of traffic, Marquez switched to the harder front tyre for his second attempt in a bid to find more stability under braking. This seemed to do the trick as he posted a 1m29.741s, putting him just over a tenth off of Lorenzo’s best.
Marquez dug deep on his final effort, setting the timing screen ablaze in the first sector. But the lap went away from him and he failed to improve on his 1m29.4s, whilst Lorenzo extended his advantage to over three tenths at the top of the pile. Despite this, Marquez was happy enough with his afternoon and conceded that the Yamaha rider was just out of reach today.
“We’re happy because getting a place on the front row was our main objective, since we knew that it would be very difficult to get pole position today,” he said.
“We pushed our hardest and I had been preparing since the last Free Practice session, in which I had a little crash while I was looking for the limit. Then in qualifying, our original plan was to use just two tyres and to make two or three laps at the end, but in my first exit I found Iannone going quite slow in the middle of the track. I think he just didn’t see me, so though I got a bit angry in that moment as I was approaching quite fast, now everything is okay and there are no problems. Anyway, today Lorenzo was a step ahead of us, especially with the new tyres, and I congratulate him for the time he set.”
Looking ahead to tomorrow, Marquez is still in two minds regarding tyre choice. The Spaniard has displayed some impressive pace on long runs in practice on both rear tyres, though, admits that the softer compound may struggle to do the 30 laps. He’ll look to confirm his option, as well as make some minor alterations to the set-up of his motorcycle, in tomorrow’s morning warm up session.
“Regarding the tyre choice for the race, we’ll see tomorrow: I feel good enough with the soft rear but we think it may not last the race,” he added.
“This morning we were quite good with the harder option as well, so let’s wait and see. Tomorrow in the warm-up we’ll also try to make another little step with the setup to improve in T4, but anyway, generally speaking I’m happy because we’ve worked well and I think we have a good pace for tomorrow.”
Comments.
Loading comments…