Álex Márquez close to top three in Assen practice

Team Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS riders Álex Márquez and Franco Morbidelli made a confident start to the Dutch TT in Assen today, with both mounting a strong challenge for the top three in Moto2 practice.

Spanish rider Márquez had a particularly eventful FP2 this afternoon after he’d ended the opening session in an encouraging eighth place.

Márquez was quickly into a fast rhythm in the second session and a lap of 1.38.371 put him into fourth place in the standings. He was only 0.051s behind third place but his attack on the top three came to a premature conclusion when he fell heavily but unhurt at the fast Ramshoek left-hander approaching Assen’s famous final chicane.

Just under 20 minutes of the session remained but Márquez was unable to take any further part in proceedings after his Kalex machine was extensively damaged in the spill. Despite the tumble, Márquez was still able to finish the session in fourth position and confidence remains high that he can challenge for a top six place on the grid in tomorrow’s qualifying session.

Álex Márquez 4th 1’38.371
“I want to focus on the positives of today and it was a good day and we improved a lot. I have a really good rhythm with the hard and soft rear tyre options so I know feel really good and confident for tomorrow. It was a shame about the crash because it cost me some valuable time on track but the most important thing is I wasn’t injured. It is a fast corner but my riding equipment did a great job, even though I have to say a few parts of my body were getting a bit warm when I was sliding down the track!”

Source – Team Estrella Galicia