Bridgestone: Marquez smashes lap record in Malaysian
Marquez claimed his eighth pole position of the season on his last timed lap and will line up on the front now next to a pair of Yamaha riders.
Marc Marquez, Repsol Honda Team
Repsol Media
Repsol Honda’s Marc Marquez set yet another qualifying lap record at Sepang, the current MotoGP™ championship leader clocking a time of 2’00.011 to shave three-tenths of a second off the existing mark.
Marquez claimed his eighth pole position of the season on his last timed lap and will line up on the front now next to a pair of Yamaha riders. Yamaha Factory Racing’s Valentino Rossi’s time of 2’00.336 slots the nine-time World Champion in at second on the grid for tomorrow’s race, while Monster Yamaha Tech3’s Cal Crutchlow was third quickest and a mere 0.023 seconds behind Rossi.Power Electronics Aspar’s Aleix Espargaro topped Qualifying Practice 1 and showed strong pace in QP2 by qualifying in ninth place with a time of 2’02.151.
Conditions were predominantly dry today, the exception being a rain shower at the end of QP1 which caused a premature ending to the session, and caused created greasy track conditions for the start of QP2. Track conditions improved throughout the second qualifying session, with the pace being the quickest of the weekend and most riders using the combination of the softer front and rear slicks.
Some riders assessed the hard compound front slick tyre in practice, although the softer front and rear slicks are still preferred by most riders and will be the most widely used options should the race be dry.
The final session before tomorrow’s race is the Warm Up session at 1140 local time (GMT +8), with the twenty lap Malaysian MotoGP™ race set to start at 1600.
Masao Azuma – Chief Engineer, Bridgestone Motorsport Tyre Development Department: “We had the same kind of weather conditions and track temperatures as yesterday, and this was reflected in the tyre choices by the riders today being quite similar to what was used in Friday practice. The softer slick options were again preferred by the majority of riders, although feedback from some of the CRT riders indicates that some of them could choose the harder options for the race, particularly for the front tyre.
Given the rain we had at the end of QP1, the pace in QP2 was extremely quick which shows how the improved feel offered by our latest generation of tyres gives riders the confidence to attack in less than ideal conditions. It was also pleasing to see another qualifying lap record broken and overall it was a positive day for Bridgestone here at Sepang.”
Bridgestone Motorsport
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