Valencia MotoGP: Marquez tops warm-up for title decider
Marc Marquez topped Sunday morning's warm-up session for MotoGP's Valencia title decider, cementing his status as favourite to clinch a fourth premier class title.
Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
The 20-minute session was led by Suzuki rider Alex Rins at the halfway point, as the rookie took at the top of the times with a 1m31.821s before improving to a 1m31.448s.
That stood as the benchmark time until the final minutes, as second-placed Marquez made a succession of improvements - moving just under two tenths clear of Rins with a 1m31.269s.
The Repsol Honda rider improved marginally to a 1m31.263s next time round to end the session on top by 0.185s.
Andrea Iannone made it two Suzukis in the top three, 0.285s slower than Marquez and exactly a tenth off Rins.
Marquez's only rival for the crown, Ducati's Andrea Dovizioso, was fourth-fastest ahead of a race he has to win to have any hope of stealing the title.
Dani Pedrosa was fifth on the second factory Honda ahead of Tech 3 Yamaha's Johann Zarco and Mika Kallio on the best of the three KTMs.
Valentino Rossi was eighth-fastest, 0.621s off the pace, while works Yamaha teammate Maverick Vinales' nightmare weekend continued as he crashed at Turn 10, ending up down in 19th.
Hector Barbera, in his last race weekend in MotoGP, was the session's only other faller.
Warm-up results:
Pos. | # | Rider | Bike | Time | Gap |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 93 | Marc Marquez | Honda | 1'31.263 | |
2 | 42 | Alex Rins | Suzuki | 1'31.448 | 0.185 |
3 | 29 | Andrea Iannone | Suzuki | 1'31.548 | 0.285 |
4 | 4 | Andrea Dovizioso | Ducati | 1'31.599 | 0.336 |
5 | 26 | Dani Pedrosa | Honda | 1'31.613 | 0.350 |
6 | 5 | Johann Zarco | Yamaha | 1'31.697 | 0.434 |
7 | 36 | Mika Kallio | KTM | 1'31.827 | 0.564 |
8 | 46 | Valentino Rossi | Yamaha | 1'31.884 | 0.621 |
9 | 53 | Tito Rabat | Honda | 1'31.894 | 0.631 |
10 | 35 | Cal Crutchlow | Honda | 1'31.984 | 0.721 |
11 | 41 | Aleix Espargaro | Aprilia | 1'32.019 | 0.756 |
12 | 99 | Jorge Lorenzo | Ducati | 1'32.026 | 0.763 |
13 | 43 | Jack Miller | Honda | 1'32.043 | 0.780 |
14 | 44 | Pol Espargaro | KTM | 1'32.079 | 0.816 |
15 | 38 | Bradley Smith | KTM | 1'32.195 | 0.932 |
16 | 51 | Michele Pirro | Ducati | 1'32.217 | 0.954 |
17 | 45 | Scott Redding | Ducati | 1'32.263 | 1.000 |
18 | 19 | Alvaro Bautista | Ducati | 1'32.267 | 1.004 |
19 | 25 | Maverick Viñales | Yamaha | 1'32.383 | 1.120 |
20 | 9 | Danilo Petrucci | Ducati | 1'32.456 | 1.193 |
21 | 17 | Karel Abraham | Ducati | 1'32.562 | 1.299 |
22 | 76 | Loris Baz | Ducati | 1'32.568 | 1.305 |
23 | 22 | Sam Lowes | Aprilia | 1'32.630 | 1.367 |
24 | 8 | Hector Barbera | Ducati | 1'32.728 | 1.465 |
25 | 60 | Michael van der Mark | Yamaha | 1'33.522 | 2.259 |
Be part of Motorsport community
Join the conversationShare Or Save This Story
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
Top Comments