Marc Marquez and Dani Pedrosa on top after first day in Valencia

It’s been a positive first day for the Repsol Honda team in Valencia, with Marc Marquez and Dani Pedrosa finishing on the top of the time sheets.

Championship leader Marc, winner in Valencia last year in Moto2, had a good start to the day finishing first in FP1 with just 0.024 separating the top three riders – Marc 1’31.557 (lap 20 of 21), Lorenzo 1’31.575 (lap 12 of 19) and Dani 1’31.581 (lap 10 of 18) – with all three lapping under the Circuit Record Lap set by Casey Stoner in 2008 (1’32.582).

In the afternoon’s FP2 session, times improved on the new asphalt and both Marc and Dani (who is the only rider to have won here in all three classes) bettered this morning’s times, using the hard rear tyre. Marc recorded a time of 1’31.220 on lap 16 of 20, and Dani was second fastest with 1’31.286 on lap 16 of 22.

Marc Marquez – 1st – 1’31.220
“It was good to start the most important week of the season and with a good feeling. We still need to improve our setup but we were fastest today – which is the key thing ahead of Sunday’s race. Tomorrow we will continue in the same way but try to improve and take another step forward because I am sure that the rest of the riders will do so”

Dani Pedrosa – 2nd – 1’31.286
“Today we were able to work with the soft and hard compound tyres, but the track conditions weren’t ideal and the bike was sliding a lot. We will have to be very focused, because the level of the other riders is high at the moment and everyone is riding fast. For tomorrow we shall concentrate on improving certain aspects of the bike and continue with the working method that we have been using”

Source: Repsol Honda Team