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Taking pole in front of your home fans is just amazing
Dani Pedrosa took the 48th pole position of his career -his 30th in MotoGP. The Spaniard was the fastest rider in FP4, and the only one to put in 5 laps in a row in the 1:45 mark. Only Andrea Iannone broke the 1:46 barrier besides him.
The Repsol riders led FP3, the first session run using last year’s layout with the Formula 1 chicane. Márquez and Pedrosa rode 1:44.7 and 1:44.8 laps, respectively, last season; Today their quickest times were 1:44.1 and 1:44.2.
Marc Márquez
Fourth on the grid, four crashes—today was a bit challenging for us, but in reality we’re not so bad. We started the day very well; I felt very comfortable in FP3, but then I crashed in FP4 and everything followed from that. We were able to prepare the bike for the qualifying session, but the feeling wasn’t exactly the same; when the temperature gets so high, the front tyre moves a lot. But I was at my home GP, so I just gave it my all and tried 100%. I crashed, but in the end we’ll start from fourth, which isn’t that bad. I think if I’m able to keep calm and ride more smoothly, we’ll be okay. I look forward to having a great race tomorrow, and to fighting for the podium.
Dani Pedrosa
I’m very happy because taking pole is always very difficult, and doing it in front of your home fans is just amazing. Last year we struggled a lot in qualifying, while this season we’ve already earned two poles, so I wish to thank my team for the good work. We’ve worked really hard on this aspect, and we’re getting better and better. The conditions were quite difficult today, especially for the tyres as it was very hot and the grip wasn’t the best. We tried to manage the situation as well as possible, working a lot on the setup to improve tyre life. The tyres will be the key to the race tomorrow; it’d be great to have the same feeling from today, but we’ll wait and see. We’ll just remain focused and be prepared to do our best.