A strong Saturday saw rookie Alex Marquez post constant improvements, challenging established race winners and setting a new personal best lap in Misano.
Friday was a day of progress and potential for Alex Marquez and the Repsol Honda Team. Having already improved his Free Practice 3 time by almost a full second when compared to a week ago, he followed it up with his strongest session to date. Alex roared to seventh in FP4, ending the session as the leading premier class rookie and the leading Honda rider. A best time of 1’32.382 in the session saw Alex just 0.377s from the top, while also showing strong pace throughout the session.
For Qualifying, the reigning Moto2 World Champion was able to improve his time down to a 1’32.198 – over a second faster than his 1’33.333 from Q1 at last week’s San Marino GP. The jump in time shows the steps the 24-year old is continuing to make as he learns the MotoGP class. Alex will start the race in 17th, ahead of multiple race winner Alex Rins.
Morning Warm Up at 09:20 Local Time, Sunday September 20, offers a final chance to adjust the setup of Alex’s Repsol Honda Team RC213V before the lights go out for the race at 14:00. Having shown consistently strong pace throughout the weekend, Alex is aiming for a fast start to catch and fight with the group ahead.
Alex Marquez
17th 1’32.198
“Again, our race pace is looking quite good and in both practice sessions we did a good job. Our rhythm is good but we can’t make a big step like the others with the soft tyre. Since Jerez we have improved this and even since last weekend we have found some time but everyone else has also made a step. I feel good on the bike but when we put new tyre in, the situation changes. It will be a hard fight tomorrow starting from where we are but if we can make some moves at the start we can make some progress.”
Alex Marquez
Emilia Romagna GP Qualifying Classification
Pos. Rider Num Nation Team Time/Gap
1 Vinales Maverick 12 SPA Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP 1'31.077
2 Miller Jack 43 AUS Pramac Racing 0.076
3 Quartararo Fabio 20 FRA Petronas Yamaha SRT 0.145
4 Espargaro Pol 44 SPA Red Bull KTM Factory Racing 0.231
5 Bagnaia Francesco 63 ITA Pramac Racing 0.236
6 Binder Brad 33 RSA Red Bull KTM Factory Racing 0.312
7 Rossi Valentino 46 ITA Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP 0.359
8 Morbidelli Franco 21 ITA Petronas Yamaha SRT 0.489
9 Petrucci Danilo