Marc Marquez Tops Friday in Argentina

Photo courtesy MotoGP.com

Marc Marquez came out on top in Friday’s MotoGP FP2 session at the Autódromo Termas de Río Hondo in Argentina. Marquez clocked a time of 1:41.579 coming in just 0.025 seconds ahead of his Repsol Honda teammate Dani Pedrosa. Maverick Viñales was third fastest in the session on the Team Suzuki Ecstar machine.

Jorge Lorenzo enters the weekend with the lead in the championship, but he was only able to muster 14^th position, over 1.2-seconds off the pace of Marquez in the day’s biggest surprise. It appeared that Lorenzo, like many riders, was trying to come to grips with the front tire feel of the new Michelins on the Argentinian circuit.

Putting Friday’s performance aside, Lorenzo, the Movistar Yamaha MotoGP rider is riding a wave of confidence after a near perfect race win in Qatar. “Yeah for sure we couldn’t start in a better way in the first race in Qatar. I think we solved everyone’s doubts about the new electronics and the new tires, we were a little bit worried about the performance during a long race with the Michelin. But we saw that we could be very constant and even faster at the end of the race, we solved the doubt in the first race and also the electronics. For sure with the bike now you need to be more precise and more careful, especially for the tires at the start of the race but we know we can finish the race in a good physical condition and we finished with the win. We can’t be much happier than now. Now we’re at a different track so we’ll see what happens with a different layout and different tarmac,” he said.

Never has Lorenzo won the first two races of a MotoGP season and has a decidedly mixed record in Argentina: “The layout of the track is one of the best of the calendar, it’s very funny to ride. Just in 2014 the bike wasn’t the best and also I didn’t arrive in my best physical condition but I finished third so it was quite a good result given the package. Last year, last year wasn’t a very good race. We didn’t choose the best tires and we weren’t so competitive during the weekend. I think with the new electronics and tires we can be much more competitive here and in Austin and try to improve the third from 2014.”

He also remained cagey on his plans for 2016: “The situation is more or less the same. Now we have to concentrate in these two races, which are very important. We haven’t won here or in Austin. To be honest I don’t want to tell much more I want to keep this with my people and decide in the next weeks. I don’t want to tell much more.”

Meanwhile Andrea Dovizioso looks to go one better than the previous race as he and Ducati hunt for victory yet again. 2015 saw Dovizioso take his third second place finish of the season; history repeating itself certainly wouldn’t be the worst situation for the Italian: “No one really knows how we’ll go in Argentina, Austin or Jerez with the tires especially. We have to be focused and really quick to understand the way during the weekend, how to manage the tires and the setup of the bike. I don’t want to think too much about the result in the race. We arrived here with a really competitive package and I feel good with the bike. We’ll see the weather during the weekend.”

Thursday marks the 20th anniversary of Valentino Rossi’s debut on the world stage, despite being the oldest and most experienced rider in the premier class he’s showing no signs of slowing down, even with technical changes continuing to shake up the field. “Yes it was a lot of different and new things for everyone. At the end in the race it was not so bad. From one side I was quite happy because I could stay in the first group and the race was quite fast. Unfortunately, I couldn’t arrive on the podium, which was my target so we need to make better to improve and become more competitive and stronger. Also the choice of tires is now more open because in the first group there was a lot of different choice so we need to concentrate and make the right choice for Sunday here.”

MotoGP Free Practice 2 Results from Autódromo Termas de Río Hondo, April 1, 2016