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Qualifying at the Autodromo Internazionale del Mugello took place under mixed weather conditions this Saturday.
Pol Espargaró started the day with a good FP3, achieving the eighth fastest time and going straight into Q2. Under skies that threatened rain, the Repsol Honda Team rider had a consistent qualifying performance and a best time of 1:46.667, to place ninth.
Off the front row by just over three thousandths of a second, Espargaró will start the race from the third row of the grid.
Marc Márquez was unable to make it directly into Q2, but made it through Q1 with the second fastest time.
Márquez started the second qualifying practice with confidence, but the puddles on the asphalt, caused him to crash. His top time of 1:47.468 put him twelfth on the grid at Mugello.
Rider Statements
“Today was another difficult day. In Free Practice 4 we changed something on the bike which improved my feeling. Then Q1 and Q2 were honestly crazy. Especially in Q1 I took a lot of risk with the slicks because it was raining already. In Q2 I also took some risks but the result didn’t arrive and in the first lap I made a mistake and crashed, I expected it to be dry but it was completely wet. Finally, I could only do my time attack with a wet bike with some small changes to the setup. Let’s see what happens in the race tomorrow, I will keep giving my 100% to help Honda.”
“It wasn’t a bad day when you look at the conditions, it was really easy to crash today and it was hard to make a lap. We have the same mixed feeling where we can’t be disappointed or upset with what we achieved but we can’t really enjoy it either. Tomorrow is the race and I am hoping the conditions stay cold like they were today because I think there’s the possibility to have a good race then. We’re strong on the brakes here so we will need to use everything to fight against our rivals.”