World Champion Marquez leads the way on day one in Valencia
Repsol Honda’s Marc Marquez recorded the fastest time in both practice sessions today for Sunday’s Valencia GP, with teammate Dani Pedrosa 5th in the combined times.
The times were already fast from FP1 with Marc recording a blistering lap of 1’31.296 on his final lap of 19, 0.332 seconds faster than the circuit lap record (Pedrosa – 2013, 1’31.628). Dani finished the session in 4th with his lap of 1’31.647 also on his final lap of 19.
In the afternoon, although the track temperature was 8ºC warmer, the wind increased and the track became slower. Marc and Dani weren’t able to improve and their times from this morning placed them 1st and 5th on this first day. The field is incredibly close, and with under one second separating the top twelve riders there is sure to be a great battle for pole position tomorrow.
Marc Marquez
“The best thing about today was how I felt on the bike. Finishing fastest is a reference, but the most important thing is that the pace was good, and we have been improving and testing things out. This afternoon the track was a little slower, but we hope to continue improving tomorrow. I'm sure that there will be a nice fight for pole between myself, Jorge, Dani and Valentino.”
Dani Pedrosa
“Today will did a lot of tyre testing, above all with the front. We tried out three different types of front tyre and rode with the soft rear in the two practice sessions. I think that overall the state of the track allowed us to ride fast, although in the afternoon it felt harder to improve our times because of the wind. We have to work to improve our setup and make a good tyre choice for the race, because the times are tight for both the factory bikes and non-factory bikes.”
Location Information
The Circuito de la Comunitat Valenciana was completed in 1999 and held rounds of the MotoGP and Spanish Motorcycle Championships in the same year. The Cheste track has several layouts, running anti-clockwise with varying lengths. MotoGP events are held on a 4km track comprising of five right handed corners, eight… read more.
| Length | 4.005 kilometres / 2.489 miles |
| Width | 12 metres |
| Left corners | 9 |
| Right corners | 5 |
| Longest straight | 0.876 kilometres / 0.544 miles |
| Constructed | 1999 |
Circuito de la Comunidad Valenciana Ricardo Tormo, Cheste, Spain - View in Google Maps
Records
| Pole Position | 1m 28.931s (162.1km/h) Maverick Viñales (Aprilia, 2023) |
| Race Lap | 1m 30.145s (159.9km/h) Brad Binder (KTM, 2023) |
| 2023 Race Winner | Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati) |
| 2023 Sprint Winner | Jorge Martin (Ducati) |
