World Championship leader Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda Team) will aim to continue his surge towards a seventh title from P3 on the grid at the Gran Premio Movistar de Aragon and despite a FP4 crash and being edged out in qualifying by Ducati Team duo Jorge Lorenzo and Andrea Dovizioso, the Spaniard was upbeat about his day.
“Yeah honestly speaking I feel really good on the bike and we were able to fight for pole position,” began Marquez, who made a mistake on his final flying lap in Q2 that could have seen him start on pole, eventually missing out by just 0.079 seconds. “But yeah on the last laps I did a few mistakes and I lost a little bit of concentration and I miss the line on Turn 12 because we arrive there, Dovi was in front and he overtake Alvaro, also Viñales was there and I lost concentration and I was wide but yeah, apart from that the rest of the qualifying practice was ok, it was easy, nice to ride the bike. We are riding in a good way, so we will see tomorrow if we can continue on that way because the two Ducatis are very fast but, we are there.”
During Q2 we saw a number of riders - including the number 93 - slowing down and waiting for other riders, which then hindered almost everyone's first of two final flying laps towards the end of qualifying. But what did Marquez think of the situation after he was playing cat and mouse with Dovi? “Yeah we went out from the box and everybody was waiting until the last moment to make only two laps, but then I go out and see everyone was waiting and then I say ok, I’m at the top of the classification, I had the fastest lap at that time and yeah I was waiting with them,” explained the six-time Champion, who at the time only had one bike at his disposal after a crash at Turn 7 in FP4.
“I was riding really good with the used tyres on the rear, but it was just I brake later with more pressure, so I lose the front. But it’s a good warning because I feel good on that corner all weekend so now I finally need to be calm.”
Marquez has only crashed out of one race this season and with a 67-point lead in the Championship, will he take any risks in trying to fight with the Ducatis if they have the edge on Sunday? “If I can I will fight until the end, if I can. But if I see too much risk and the Ducatis are faster than us it’s time to think about the Championship but we are there, we are close so we will see. We will try to be with the two Ducatis.”
The trio look set for another incredible battle, can the Honda rider get the better of both the Bologna bullets for the first time since the Sachsenring at MotorLand Aragon?