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Sixth and seventh on the grid for Repsol Honda Team in Misano

0.012s split the Repsol Honda Team pairing of Pol Espargaro and Marc Marquez as dry weather returned to Misano, Marquez walking away from two falls.

Friday’s rainstorms were nowhere to be seen as the sun beat down on the San Marino Grand Prix, riders eager to use Free Practice 3 to improve their previous times. The MotoGP field continued to tighten over the course of the day as the premier class extracted the maximum performance from their machines.

Pol Espargaro diligently went to work in Free Practice 3, the #44 determined to finish the morning session in the top ten after his positive feelings early on Friday in the dry. A steady session of constant improvements saw Espargaro accomplish just that, lapping the Misano circuit in 1’32.416. Free Practice 4 was used by Espargaro and his squad to experiment ahead of the race on Sunday, gathering useful data for the future. Then in Q2, Espargaro  left his run late and secured sixth on the grid with his final lap of the session, improving his FP3 time by another half a second for the second row of the grid. This is now Espargaro’s third straight top-ten result in Qualifying.

An important Free Practice 3 session began for Marc Marquez as he started the day’s work, building his speed throughout the session. Unfortunately, Marquez suffered a fall in the last minutes of Free Practice 3 at Turn 14, although unharmed he was unable to improve his time and entered Q1. The eight-time World Champion did all he needed to do in the first 15-minute session, passing into Q2 to join his Repsol Honda Team teammate. With a provisional fourth place in his pocket after his first run of the second session, Marquez went out looking for more on his final run but suffered a second fall, this time at Turn 9. Again unharmed, Marquez will start at the head of the third row in seventh. Despite the falls, Marquez is pleased with his progress on Saturday.

Sunday’s San Marino Grand Prix will begin at 14:00 Local Time, the race running over the course of 27 laps. Before that, the Repsol Honda Team will have 20-minutes of morning Warm Up to confirm their settings for the race with the weather still looming as a question mark.

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Pol Espargaro (Sixth)Repsol Honda Team

“We had an interesting day and made the most of the dry track time today. We still have one or two things to confirm in Warm Up but I am satisfied overall today. Sixth position is good but our distance to Bagnaia is a bit too big for my liking. Tomorrow will be a hard race because Ducati look to have something extra here, but I think we can fight behind them in the race. It can be very difficult to overtake here so starting on the second row is really important. Let’s make a good start, fight and see what’s possible – tomorrow is a new day.”

Marc Marquez (Seventh)

“I’m happy about today because in Free Practice 3 we found ourselves struggling a lot. Q1 is always really difficult but with HRC we made a really nice strategy, so I want to say thank you to HRC and Bradl because he was the guy to open the track. In Q2 I pushed again and I was able to make a good lap, I’m happy because I have been struggling at this circuit a lot. We are not very far from the top considering this.”

San Marino Grand Prix Qualifying Results

 

Pos. Rider Num Team Constructor Time/Gap
1 BAGNAIA Francesco 63 Ducati Lenovo Team Ducati 1’31.065
2 MILLER Jack 43 Ducati Lenovo Team Ducati 0.249
3 QUARTARARO Fabio 20 Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP Yamaha 0.302
4 MARTIN Jorge 89 Pramac Racing Ducati 0.598
5 ZARCO Johann 5 Pramac Racing Ducati 0.771
6 ESPARGARO Pol 44 Repsol Honda Team Honda 0.858
7 MARQUEZ Marc 93 Repsol Honda Team Honda 0.87
8 ESPARGARO Aleix 41 Aprilia Racing Team Gresini Aprilia 0.872
9 RINS Alex 42 Team Suzuki Ecstar Suzuki 0.952
10 VINALES Maverick 12 Aprilia Racing Team Gresini Aprilia 1.056
11 MIR Joan 36 Team Suzuki Ecstar Suzuki 1.361
12 BASTIANINI Enea 23 Avintia Esponsorama Ducati 1.396
13 NAKAGAMI Takaaki 30 LCR Honda Honda 0.334 Q1
14 PIRRO Michele 51 Ducati Test Team Ducati 0.411
15 MARINI Luca 10 SKY VR46 Avintia Ducati 0.413
16 MORBIDELLI Franco 21 Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP Yamaha 0.42
17 BINDER Brad 33 Red Bull KTM Factory Racing KTM 0.551
18 BRADL Stefan 6 Team HRC Honda 0.563
19 MARQUEZ Alex 73 LCR Honda Honda 0.6
20 LECUONA Iker 27 Tech 3 KTM Factory Racing KTM 0.605
21 OLIVEIRA Miguel 88 Red Bull KTM Factory Racing KTM 0.945
22 PETRUCCI Danilo 9 Tech 3 KTM Factory Racing KTM 1.015
23 ROSSI Valentino 46 Petronas Yamaha SRT Yamaha 1.091
24 DOVIZIOSO Andrea 4 Petronas Yamaha SRT Yamaha 1.222
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