Alex Marquez finds a second in qualifying
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
“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.”
Emilia Romagna GP Qualifying Classification
| Pos. | Rider | Num | Nation | Team | Constructor | Time/Gap |
|---|
Location Information
Close to the city of Rimini, the Misano Adriático circuit was constructed in 1972 and has since undergone an array of modifications. A regular scene for Italian Grands Prix throughout the 80s and early 90s, Misano returned to the MotoGP calendar in 2007.With updated facilities, track and grandstands, the Misano… read more.
| Length | 4.226 kilometres / 2.626 miles |
| Width | 14 metres |
| Left corners | 6 |
| Right corners | 10 |
| Longest straight | 0.565 kilometres / 0.351 miles |
| Constructed | 1969 |
| Modified | 2008 |
Misano World Circuit "Marco Simoncelli", Via Daijiro Kato, Misano Adriatico, Rimini, Italy - View in Google Maps
Records
| Pole Position | 1m30.390s (168.3 km/h) Jorge Martin (Ducati, 2023) |
| Race Lap | 1m31.791s (165.7km/h) Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati, 2023) |
| Race Time | 41m33.421s (164.7 km/h) Jorge Martin (Ducati, 2023) |
| 2023 Sprint Winner | Jorge Martin (Ducati) |
| 2023 Race Winner | Jorge Martin (Ducati) |
