Márquez and Pedrosa kick off 2018 season at Losail

We’re pretty happy with how this first day in Qatar went

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Marc Márquez completes 32 laps of the Qatari track, setting the third best time in the first Free Practice session and going sixth quickest in FP2.

Dani Pedrosa put in 34 laps, and placed twelfth in the first Free Practice session. He was seventh in the second session.

Just one thousandth of a second separated the two Repsol Honda team driers at the end of the first day, with a best time for Marquez of 1:54.850.

Marc Márquez

In general, we’re pretty happy with how this first day in Qatar went. We had our first contact with the track and had the chance to see if we’re getting the same feeling we had during the test. Actually, the track has changed compared to the test, and we now have to adapt the bike setup in order to make the tyres work well. Tomorrow we’ll see if we can get closer to the riders ahead of us, who seem to have something more at the moment.

Dani Pedrosa

Conditions were a bit different from the test, and consequently our feeling was different. Two weeks ago, the asphalt was in quite good condition after three days of riding, whereas it was a bit dirty today. We weren’t as comfortable in the beginning, but we improved over time, which is positive. We can see that our rivals are fast, but lap times are quite tight and there are many riders on almost the same time. We have to see how the conditions will be tomorrow.