Marc Marquez hits the top of the Qatar timesheets in FP3

Repsol Honda’s Marc Marquez and Dani Pedrosa comfortably secured their places in tomorrow’s Qualifying 2, by achieving the 1st and 6th fastest times in the combined times of the first three sessions.

Marc finished on the top of the time sheets in both Free Practice sessions in Qatar today, with a fastest time of 1’56.084 recorded on lap 16 of 17 in FP3, on a new soft rear tyre. Teammate Dani, improved his RC213V in the last session and set his fastest time of 1’56.502, just 0.418 off Marc, on lap 9 of 17 with a used soft rear tyre.

Tomorrow’s Free Practice 4 will take place at 19h55 local time, and will be used by the Repsol Honda riders as a final session to prepare for the race and the 15 minute shootout – Qualifying 2 session at 21h00.

Marc Marquez – 1st – 1’56.084
“Practice today went pretty well – better than expected. I was very comfortable on the bike, and this is the important thing. Our foundation isn’t bad at all, we are improving in every session and working with Sunday’s race in mind. What we are missing is a bit of pace and consistency. We will have to make the most of the 30 minutes that we have before qualifying tomorrow to improve those points”.

Dani Pedrosa – 6th – 1’56.502
“We improved a little today and are now further up the order. We are faster and entering corners better, but we’ve still got a way to go. We hope to gain a little rear grip, which would allow us to ride more comfortably. The times keep dropping with every session, but we are going to try to keep getting better and prepare for qualifying and the race. The track isn’t in good condition this year and I don’t think that this will change; maybe it will improve slightly as more laps are completed. However, this doesn’t mean making any big changes to the bike – just improving the setup for the conditions we have”.

Source: Repsol Honda Team