Alex Marquez & Alex Rins take third row starts from Motegi qualifying

The second day of the Japanese Grand Prix decided the grid for tomorrow’s race –the fifteenth contest of the year. Alex Rins and Alex Marquez both suffered crashes on Saturday, eventually taking seventh and ninth place to start from row 3. Danny Kent took pole in a tight qualifying session.

The day started with a scare for Alex Marquez, who crashed on his third lap out. The Repsol rider got back to the garage and finally completed seven further laps, but the mistake saw him finish seventeenth in a morning session in which Rins was fifth.

In qualifying it was Rins who fell in the early stages, but he also got back in time for his team to repair his bike, send him out again and look to improve his grid position. Rins was eventually ninth, with a time of 1:57.212 1 tenth off his teammate. Alex Marquez, in seventh, set a time of 1:57.114, leaving him off the front row by just 2 tenths.

Both riders will start tomorrow from the third row of the grid, for a race that will start at 11am local time

Alex Rins
“I’m not too worried about tomorrow, but we’ll have to concentrate on making a good start that will be the key to being in the first group. I expect a very tough race, because there will be many people out in front who have never been there, so I will have to watch out. If a rider gets away well and we fight amongst ourselves behind, he could escape. We’ll have to start well and stay focused, because I think we have the pace to be at the front”.

Alex Marquez
“I’m not entirely happy but am somewhat pleased, considering how this morning went. We suffered a crash that delayed the work we wanted to do and things we wanted to try. For the qualifying session we changed the setup quite a bit and took a step forward. Perhaps in the warmup we can continue to evolve, but the feeling is very good at the moment. We did not achieve the small goal that we had for today –to get onto the first or second row– but we head row 3. Whilst it is not the best position, the race will be very long and ridden in groups. I’ll have to be very attentive throughout the race to score as many points as possible”.

Source: Repsol Media