Alex Márquez and Joan Mir finish double top ten in Argentina
Alex MarquezJoan MirMoto2News April 8, 2018 Gareth Bouch
Team Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS rider Álex Márquez collected valuable championship points with a controlled fifth place in today’s Grand Prix of Argentina.
Making his 100th Grand Prix start Márquez led home a double top ten finish with his rookie teammate Joan Mir finishing seventh in just his second Moto2 race.
It was another impressive surge through the early traffic by Mir who started 17th on the grid to score his first top ten in Moto2.
The young Spaniard was 10th at the end of lap one and then calmly established himself in seventh to hold off Dominic Aegerter by 0.1s in a tight finish.
The 23-lap race was run on a damp but drying track with riders using slick tyres despite a couple of patches of standing water.
Márquez settled in fifth place on the opening lap but then lost valuable time when he was squeezed wide by Miguel Oliveira.
With four laps remaining Márquez was pushing for a podium challenge when he made a small mistake in a braking duel with Lorenzo Baldassarri who eventually finished fourth.
The next race is the Grand Prix of the Americas in Austin, Texas on April 22.
Álex Márquez: 5th
“It was not an easy race in these conditions. My main problem early in the race was the bump with Oliveira and I lost contact with the front group. I pushed hard to try and challenge for the podium in the final laps but I had overheated my rear tyre and it was spinning too much. Then I ran wide on the brakes so fifth place today is the best we could do. It was a good but not perfect race.”
Joan Mir: 7th
“My qualifying position was not good but this did not show my real potential for this race and I knew I had the pace for a strong result so I am happy with this top ten finish. The race was really difficult, every lap the conditions were different so I learnt a lot from this. I am always strong at the beginning on new tyres but we must still improve to have better grip and pace on a used tyre.”
