MotoGP, Mugello, difficult qualifying for Repsol Honda leaves Pedrosa 7th and Marquez 13th

After a positive final practice session where Dani Pedrosa finished 2nd and Marc Marquez 5th, the Repsol Honda riders were not able to carry this momentum into qualifying for tomorrow’s Italian GP. Dani, who made a big step from yesterday, pre-qualified for Q2 and was the first out on track – taking provisional pole. He was consistently fast and improved on his second run, but with such a small gap separating the riders he was unable to place higher than 7th with his time of 1’46.875, just 0.3 seconds off pole position. Marc had a small crash in turn one during FP4 having already missed out on pre-qualifying for Q2 by 0.022 seconds. Therefore he had to take part in Q1 where he suffered heavily with rear grip and his time of 1’47.240 did not promote him to Q2, leaving him on the 5th row in 13th for tomorrow’s 23 lap race. (hondaracingcorporation.com)

Dani Pedrosa – 7TH  1’46.875

“Today went a little better. We were able to improve our pace, go faster and place a little higher up in the standings. We have taken a step forward with our lap time. However, the timesheet was very tight and we didn’t get a very good position on the grid so tomorrow we will need to get a good start.“

Marc Marquez – 13TH  1’47.240

“We can’t be happy about today, because this was the worst qualifying result that we have had in MotoGP. Starting in the morning, we didn’t use the new tyre and that took us into Q1 -in which we had a problem that prevented us from progressing to Q2. Nevertheless, I think we have a good pace for tomorrow, although it is clear that starting from so far back we will suffer a lot. We will try to make a good start and opening few laps to get into the leading group.“

Results Session