MotoGP News
Date:
5/April/2013
Talented MotoGP rookie Marc Marquez ruled the second night
of the season-opening Qatar Grand Prix.
Fourth during the Yamaha dominated Thursday session, the
Repsol Honda star made a late time attack to top both FP2 and FP3, held in
windy and dusty conditions under the floodlights at the Losail International
Circuit.
The reigning Moto2 champion and youngest rider in MotoGP
finished just 0.001s ahead of reigning double title winner Jorge Lorenzo, whose
fellow Yamaha riders Cal Crutchlow and Valentino Rossi completed a close top
four.
Marquez is again likely to face stiff opposition from the M1
trio as he seeks to match Lorenzo in taking a MotoGP pole at his very first
attempt.
Marquez, 20, said: “Today the most important is that I feel
so good on the bike. From the beginning we tried some different things. I felt
so comfortable.
“Generally now we have a good base, but we need to try some
more things tomorrow because we can improve in terms of consistency. The most
important thing is that practice-by-practice I feel better on the bike and my
riding style is more 'MotoGP'
“We will see what happens tomorrow. I’m concentrating on our
work. We must make the most of the 30 minute session before qualifying. The
main thing is to be ready for the race - to be clear about the tyres and
everything.”
Marquez’s team-mate and triple title runner-up Dani Pedrosa was
the next best Honda rider, in sixth. Pedrosa, often the rider to beat in winter
testing, is struggling with corner entry issues.
A revised MotoGP qualifying format for 2013 means the top
ten riders from free practice graduate straight to Saturday’s Qualifying 2 pole
position shootout. The remaining riders will fight for the last two places available for entry into Q2,
during Qualifying 1.
Jarno Saarinen (1973) and Max Biaggi (1998) are the only
riders to have won their first race in the premier-class.
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