Steps forward for Marquez and Pedrosa

Repsol Honda Team riders improve feeling and times in two Free Practice sessions on Friday. Marquez places third and Pedrosa sixth.

The two Repsol Honda Team riders made substantial improvements on the second night of the Qatar Grand Prix. Marc Marquez was second in the first of the two Free Practice sessions, and third in the second –behind Andrea Iannone and Jorge Lorenzo. The two-time MotoGP World Champion improved by almost 1.5 seconds on his best time from Thursday night, as he continues to feel more comfortable with his 2016 machine. Teammate Dani Pedrosa was sixth in both sessions, but made similar progress to Marquez. The Repsol Honda rider led much of the final session, before the riders put on softer tyres in order to seal their places in Q2. Qualifying for the Qatar GP takes place on Saturday, to decide the starting grid for Sunday's race at the Losail International Circuit.

 

Marc Marquez  3rd  1:54.835  33 laps  178 km

"Today the feeling was like at the test we did two weeks ago. As soon as we went out for FP2, we changed the setup modification we made yesterday and I finally felt much better. We continued to work well, our pace is not bad and we entered directly into Q2, which is positive because this year everything is very tight on the timesheets. Tomorrow we must continue to improve our pace and we have to decide which front and rear tyre to use. From there, we will see if we can take another step forward. We are not far from the fight for the podium."





Dani Pedrosa  6th  1:55.113  34 laps   183 km

"Today we were able to use the practice time better; we rode faster than yesterday and we improved our times in the two sessions. The positive thing is that we were able understand the bike a little better and we improved the setup of the bike, although there are still many things to do. Tomorrow we must continue working to progress even more. The track was in good condition and continues to get better as we put in more and more laps."