Marquez earns courageous front row despite injury

Repsol Honda’s Marc Marquez battled through the pain barrier caused by his broken little finger and netted a front row spot for tomorrow’s twenty seven lap race, starting in second. Teammate Hiroshi Aoyama will start from the 6th row in 16th place.

Temperatures rose again today in Andalusia to 31ºC and the Jerez track hit 48ºC. In this afternoon’s FP4, Marc had a small crash in the first turn – losing the front – but escaped unhurt. The team worked hard to have both bikes ready for qualifying and Marc was able to make the most of the 15 minute session. He recorded his time of 1’38.300 on his final flying lap, placing him second on the grid. Hiroshi gradually improved throughout the day and took 16th on the grid with his time of 1’39.866 also on his final flying lap.

Marc Marquez (2nd 1'38.300): "We knew it would be hard work to get onto the front row. That was the goal and we succeeded, so I am very happy about that, but we also know that tomorrow will be a difficult race and it will be hard to finish the 27 laps. On the other hand, today I was able to ride without painkillers and tomorrow I will be using them. We had prepared three sets of tyres to use in the qualifying session, however, after the crash, I preferred not to push things and we used just the two - but we could not make it onto pole."

Hiroshi Aoyama (16th 1'39.866): "We tried something different in the setup today but this morning we went in the wrong direction. Then this afternoon we changed things and I felt better on the bike again and was able to go faster. In qualifying we used the softer tyres and although I made a small mistake I still improved my lap time and took 16th on the grid, which is better than yesterday. I am confident with our pace for race distance as I feel better on the harder tyre so we will see how the conditions are tomorrow."

Repsol Honda Team