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Marc Márquez missed out on a direct path into Q2 when, in FP3, an incident with another rider obstructing the eight-time World Champion’s line impeded his lap. In Q1 he was the second fastest rider, making it to Q2 at the last moment.
The Repsol Honda Team rider concluded the day with a best time of 1:58.545, ensuring him third on the grid.
Pol Espargaró’s day began with a small crash that prevented him from making it directly into the second qualifying session of the day. During Q1, the Repsol Honda Team rider maintained a good pace riding behind his teammate.
At the end of Q1, with a best time of 1:59.363, Espargaró fell just 3 tenths of a second short of making the cut, seeing himself relegated to the sixth row of the starting grid and seventeenth position.
Rider Statements
“The feeling today wasn’t there but the lap time was! I had to take a lot of risks and I was honestly really surprised in Q1 and Q2 that I was able to do the lap alone. Normally I have been struggling to do it, especially somewhere like here in Sepang with the straights where we are losing time. I really don’t know how I am in the first row! Tomorrow will be a long and demanding race if it doesn’t rain, let’s see what we can do at the start of the race.”
“Today really was not a good day at all and it is hard to find positives. I want to say sorry to my team for the three crashes, this gave them a lot of extra work and as always they were perfect in fixing and preparing the bike. We now have to deal with this grid penalty so it will be a race of seeing what happens. If there’s a lot of rain or it starts rain during the race, maybe something can happen.”