Chennai: Marc Marquez is a Spanish Grand Prix motorcycle road racer and one of the most successful motorcycle racers of all time with seven Grand Prix world championships to his name – five of which are in the premier MotoGP class.
During the VisitQatar Gerand Prix which was held in the evening under the lights and thus had more representative for the race than the daytime FP1 and FP3, Ross’s first- practice benchmark was surpassed in almost no time, as Marquez fired in the first sub-1m 55s lap of the weekend on just his second flying lap.
He was briefly overtaken by Ducati’s Danilo Petrucci a few minutes later, but immediately responded with a 1m 54.767s to end his opening run out front. Ducati’s Andrea Dovizioso then went quickest with five minutes left on the clock, but was subsequently outpaced by Vinales.
Pol Espargaro led the way posting the 16th-best time, 1.673s slower than Marquez. However, Marquez crossed the start-finish line moments after the Yamaha man to go almost half a second quicker with a 1m 53.380s, the new lap record. Vinales’ effort proved good enough for second, ahead of Miller and the Aussie’s former teammate Petrucci. Rossi was only 17th, the only rider in the field not to improve on his FP1 lap.
He and Lorenzo, as well as 13th-placed LCR Honda rider Cal Crutchlow, potentially have to go through Q1, as posting a better lap time is likely to be difficult in the daytime third practice. Pramac Ducati rider Jack Miller, likewise on new softs, soon surpassed Mir, before Franco Morbidelli took his turn out front, having recovered from a high-speed Turn 1 crash earlier in FP2, which had left his Yamaha on fire.
Marquez grabbed a tow from Yamaha rider Maverick Vinales to eclipse Johann Zarco’s existing lap record with a difference of 3s. “Let’s see if we can keep this level until Sunday’ he said. Rins”; last-gasp effort demoted Marquez’s new teammate Jorge Lorenzo to 11th, as he ended the session 1.048s off the pace.
– Report by Afshan Siddique