Marquez and Pedrosa kick off 2017 season among the fastest riders

Marc Márquez broke the 1:55 barrier

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Marc Márquez’ fastest time on Thursday was 1.346 seconds faster than his top time in the first Free Practice session of 2016.

The reigning MotoGP World Champion and Maverick Viñales were the only riders to break the 1:55 barrier.

The two Repsol Honda Team riders both set the same top speed: 337.7 km/h.

This is the third time Dani Pedrosa has finished in the Top 3 in the first Free Practice for Round 1 of a season. The previous two occasions were in 2011 (2nd) and 2015 (2nd).

Marc Márquez

“This first day was positive enough because two weeks ago we hadn’t finish the test so well, while today I had a better feeling with the bike. We started with a different setup compared to then and we did a good job. We have some work to do, especially on the electronics side, but that said I’m quite happy. Maverick is really fast but it was to be expected, and on our side we’re working hard in our garage to try and find a good compromise with the setup.”

Dani Pedrosa

“I’m happy with today. Even if the track conditions and the grip weren’t the best, we tried to push hard in case the weather gets worse tomorrow as the forecast says. It was important to be up front, because everybody is expecting some rain. I’m generally happy and I think we have already gathered a lot of good information. We’ll see how things go and keep working to do our best.”