COTA MotoGP Qualifying
Qualifying was another controversial affair at COTA overnight when Marc Marquez qualified on pole only to have that then stripped from him by Race Direction for holding up Maverick Vinales on the race line. Pol Espargaro also copped a three-position grid penalty for the same infraction.
Marc Marquez – P1
“Basically, today was good for us, as we were the fastest in qualifying and, most importantly, were able to keep a good race pace in FP3 and FP4. Of course qualifying was a bit hectic. I crashed and had to take my second bike for the second run. I went out, and unfortunately I didn’t expect Maverick to arrive behind me because I was focused on Andrea (Iannone), who was waiting ahead and who I knew could be very fast. I apologised to Maverick but I didn’t realize he was behind me until I heard his engine. So tomorrow I’ll start from fourth. It will be important to choose the right tyre; we’ve worked a lot on used tyres and I was able to be consistent during the practices, but this track is quite physically demanding and tomorrow the temperature should be higher, so we’ll see. We’ll try and remain fully concentrated.”
Maverick Vinales – P2
“For sure I‘m very satisfied. It‘s been a long time since I was on the first row. I think tomorrow we can do a great race. I felt really good with the tyres, especially the rear. I think that tomorrow we still have a little room to improve. Race by race I‘m finding my own bike, my own style, and I still have a margin to push more. I‘m quite happy and tomorrow we‘re going to try to be even faster. I‘m very much focused on tomorrow. We had great pace in FP4 and we have to keep pushing. I think fighting for the victory will be difficult, but not impossible. I feel good and I feel good on the bike, so let‘s see. I think between today and tomorrow we can make another step.”
Massimo Meregalli – Yamaha MotoGP Team Director
“Though we expected different weather for today we are not complaining, because the dry track time allowed us to make another step. Maverick and Valentino are comfortable on their bikes and we feel optimistic for tomorrow‘s race, having secured a first and second row start. It was a pity that Maverick had to abandon one of his hot laps. Marquez was cruising on the race line, blocked Maverick, but our rider showed his professionalism when, on the next lap, he immediately went on from where he left off. Valentino was also in the mix throughout the Q2 session and I‘m sure he will also be fighting at the front tomorrow. We are in a good place at the moment, but we want to apply some last setting changes to make the final improvements, which could make all the difference, as we expect it to be a tough but competitive race for us.”
Andrea Iannone – P3
“My last front row was in Valencia last year, and I have a really good feeling with the bike now. We’ve worked really well this weekend, practice by practice, the engineers have done a great job and we were able to improve. We’re not completely ready for the race, we’ll certainly use warm-up tomorrow morning to fine tune some settings, but I think that’s the case for everybody. It will be a difficult race, especially as Marquez has such a high pace, but you can never say never and I will push and try everything! I’m happy to start from the front row. We’ve worked really hard in the last year and a half so I really want to bring a good result to Suzuki.”
Johann Zarco – P4
“I’m really happy, because yesterday has been quite difficult. This morning, I was glad to find dry conditions, so I was able to push a lot in case of rain. Finally, I got a good lap time for the qualifying and now in this session, I used two medium tyres, because we don’t have some extra grip with the soft ones, it’s almost even worse. This disturbed me a bit yesterday and also today, it was quite strange. Anyway, we were able to manage it well and it’s great to be competitive. Fourth position is a good base for the race, so tomorrow I’m going to push for the podium and I really hope I have the pace to do so. I want to rest myself and try to keep the pace until the end of the race.”
Valentino Rossi – P5
“I‘m quite satisfied about these two days, because I was fast all the time and I feel good with the bike. We are working in a good way. I thought I had the potential for a front row start, but I wasn‘t fast enough. Anyway, starting from the top-5 is OK for tomorrow‘s race. Now we have to fix some small details and we also have to hope that tomorrow we have sunshine and a dry race.”
Jorge Lorenzo – P6
“I’m pleased because we were able to resolve some of our problems and in qualifying I did a really really good lap that allows me to start from the second row: after the way things were this morning, that wasn’t easy. It was a real pity that I missed out on the front row by one-tenth of a second, but in any case tomorrow we are starting from a good position. With new tyres my bike improves a lot, while on used tyres we are still struggling to keep a good pace. I hope the weather conditions improve tomorrow and the sun comes out so we can continue with the same setting that worked well today.”
Cal Crutchlow – P7
“Today was not a good day of qualifying for us, but for the rest of the practices I felt good – I was comfortable and confident with the changes and settings we made on the bike. In qualifying, the first run seemed to go well and I felt good with the machine and the tyres. However, in the second run I felt good with the bike but I didn’t feel so good on the rear. Even though I was able to go faster, I just couldn’t get on with the tyre at all. We’ll investigate what happened and why we are seventh on the grid, because I think we should have been on the front row. Nonetheless, we look forward to having a good race tomorrow.”that worked well today.”
Andrea Dovizioso – P8
“Today was a very productive day because the changes we made to the bike went in the right direction and we got a lot closer to the guys at the front. Now we can start to think about getting on the podium tomorrow, but I believe there are going to be a lot of us with the same idea. In any case the step we made today was an important one, even though I still don’t have a perfect feeling with my bike on this track.”
Dani Pedrosa – P9
“Of course I’m quite satisfied because I honestly didn’t expect to be able to ride, as this track is very hard. I was able to qualify directly to Q2, so I was already super-happy at that point. This morning I had to make a big effort, and I felt more pain compared to yesterday. I was expecting rain today, which would have let me have a little bit less stress on the hand so that I could recover more easily for tomorrow. But unfortunately, it was dry, and I had to go. My position wasn’t so bad at one point in qualifying, but I wasn’t able to improve, so I lost some positions. Anyway, I’m more than surprised just to be riding. For tomorrow, we’ll see if we can get some help from the medicines and see if this will let me give more effort, because the race is long.”
Danilo Petrucci – P10
“I can say that I am satisfied with this result. If I have to be honest this Top 10 makes me as happy as the first row in Qatar because it comes after a very difficult Friday. I want to thank my entire team for the work they have done. Maybe tomorrow we can’t fight for the Top 5 but I think we’re in a position to be in the Top 10″.
Alex Rins – P11
“I expected more from the qualifying, but the race is tomorrow. We will try to work hard to get the good feeling back and prepare for the race. Overall I can`t feel confident in different areas; the circuit, the tyres, myself. But I think we have a big margin to improve. Andrea did well, so at least we know the bike works well here, but we have to find out how to improve tomorrow.”
Pol Espargaro – P12
“I think we made an amazing effort to make Q2 and we were very happy but I think what happened afterwards was not fair. We checked the images and I was not in the middle (of the track) and it is not comparable with other incidents today. I don’t really know what is going on but I don’t think it is fair we have to go back by three positions. We will go strong tomorrow. We made some good steps and the bike feels much better.”
Takaaki Nakagami – P13
“Of course, I’m really happy with this qualifying, I was riding well and we start the race in a good position. I just missed going into Q2, but I’m really happy to have been so close to it and the lap time was really good. Honestly, we are making lots of improvements every single day so I want to thank the LCR Honda IDEMITSU Team. I will be trying my best tomorrow as always, and we hope the weather forecast will be better than today. The qualifying position was good and I hope to finish in the top ten.”
Tito Rabat – P14
“It was a difficult day and we suffered a lot in these conditions. We also went wrong with our tyre choice in the morning, because we thought we would be faster with the soft compound in cooler conditions, which was not the case. In FP4, we went out with the only tyres we still had available and it didn’t go well either. Then we found back to our speed in Q1 and I went fast, but in the end I wasn’t rewarded: The front end tucked away and I missed out on moving to Q2 by a few fractions of a second. But nevertheless, I am confident for the race because the summer heat that will return tomorrow suits us very well”.
Bradley Smith – P15
“FP4 went great and the first couple of sectors were good but I did not leave enough space and did not expect to catch (Jack) Miller so easily. I made a couple of mistakes as well but I’m pleased with 15th and we’re a team so it was OK for Pol to ‘use’ me a couple of times out there: it is about time that we got into Q2. 15th is my best qualification this year and on race pace in FP4 we looked solid. We just need to keep that up for tomorrow. I think the grip is coming on this race track and this meant we could push forward more.”
Hafizh Syahrin – P16
“I felt really good in Qualifying one and had a good rhythm, but to be honest, I was quite disappointed in the end, because I did a mistake in my strategy to take reference of the riders in front trying to catch them. In the last lap, I didn’t see the chequered flag, otherwise I think I could have been better. Anyway, it’s ok. I’m really happy with the bike. Now we’re looking forward to tomorrow, we try to have a good setup for the race, because I still lose a bit too much grip with the used tyre and aim to have a good race rhythm, so we’ll see.”
Franco Morbidelli – P17
“In terms of race pace we have improved the set-up and I think we have good direction for the race so I’m happy about that. We have made a good step to improve rear grip and to try to understand the best tyre choice for the race. I think it could be possible for me to race the soft rear tyre tomorrow, but we will see after warm up.”
Jack Miller – P18
“We made a good step forward in the FP4s by working a lot on the geometry of the bike. We managed to improve the pace and this gave me great confidence. The feeling with the bike has improved a lot compared to Friday. I was convinced I could be competitive in qualifying. Unfortunately the crash at the end of the FP4 has ruined our plans”.
Aleix Espargaro – P19
“It was a very strange day. Yesterday we were fast, but today I hardly recognised my bike. We gave it our all in qualifying, but in spite of it we were not able to get close to the top ten, which is a goal that we knew was within our potential. The lack of grip and strong chattering at the front end slowed me down today. We’ll try to figure out why these problems came up so we can get back in the right direction. After all, the potential is there. Yesterday I was able to be fast and Scott was also competitive.”
Tom Lüthi – P20
“In qualifying I felt good, we had improved the turning and I found some more traction and I came in for a tyre charge to go for a final fast run. But it was frustrating because I came across some traffic and this destroyed my lap and it is disappointing because I feel I could have done a 2’05 lap today, so now I’ll go for that in the race.”
Álvaro Bautista – P21
“After today, I feel confident and I believe that in the race we can improve considerably on our grid position. I don’t know if I can get into the Top 10, but that might be the goal tomorrow. We will try to give everything, because today we saw improvement and I hope to be more competitive. We tried some modifications to the front that have given us some more confidence. I lost some time in qualifying on my hot lap, because I had to go wide to avoid crashing into another rider. I almost crashed on two occasions; it’s something that happens when you ride at the limit but you have no contact with the tyres. Tomorrow in the warmup we will try to test the medium tyres to see if they might be an option for the race, because I think they can be consistent over a long distance.”
Scott Redding – P22
“In FP3 I felt very much at ease. I had managed to improve with the medium tyre, but just as I was ready to put on the soft tyre, confident that I would be able to do a good time, it began to rain. In FP4, after the rain, I struggled because of the lack of grip, both on the front and on the rear, and it was the same in Q1, where our performance was below our expectations. Aleix also struggled in qualifying, I think because of the same problems, so now we will need to analyse the data well in view of the race tomorrow.”
Karel Abraham – P23
“Today was a tough day. We tried to push but we didn’t get a good result. My first lap in qualifying was good, but on the second, at Turn 10, I lost the front end and I fell at a very high speed. I am pretty sore, as it was a heavy fall. We couldn’t get a good position for tomorrow, but we will not stop fighting in the race to get the best possible result.”
Xavier Simeon – P24
“The second day was much more positive and the changes to my seating position on the bike helped me a lot to be more competitive. Everything seems to be easier now and I really hoped to do much better in Q1. We saw yesterday that several riders went fast with the hard rear tyre compound so we decided to go out with this tyre for my final run. But this was a mistake and with the softer compound we couldn’t get the maximum out of the bike either. But I am calm, because all of this adds to our experience in this category and we now know exactly what to do on Sunday. It will be a tough race, because this circuit is physically very demanding on a MotoGP bike”.
MotoGP World Championship Points Standings
- Cal CRUTCHLOW Honda GBR 38
2 Andrea DOVIZIOSO Ducati ITA 35
3 Johann ZARCO Yamaha FRA 28
4 Maverick VIÑALES Yamaha SPA 21
5 Marc MARQUEZ Honda SPA 20
6 Jack MILLER Ducati AUS 19
7 Danilo PETRUCCI Ducati ITA 17
8 Valentino ROSSI Yamaha ITA 16
9 Alex RINS Suzuki SPA 16
10 Andrea IANNONE Suzuki ITA 15
11 Tito RABAT Ducati SPA 14
12 Dani PEDROSA Honda SPA 9
13 Hafizh SYAHRIN Yamaha MAL 9
14 Franco MORBIDELLI Honda ITA 6
15 Pol ESPARGARO KTM SPA 5
16 Scott REDDING Aprilia GBR 4
17 Alvaro BAUTISTA Ducati SPA 3
18 Takaaki NAKAGAMI Honda JPN 3
19 Karel ABRAHAM Ducati CZE 1
20 Jorge LORENZO Ducati SPA 1
Remy Gardner – P18 Moto2
“It’s been quite tough, we’re down in 18th at the moment. We knew we were coming here with a disadvantage, as I didn’t do this round here last year with the Moto2. I think it’s due to the track, me and also I’m still not too comfortable with the bike yet, which is the combination letting us down a bit. I actually didn’t expect to do this qualifying lap time, so I’m quite happy I could pull it out on the last lap. This track is quite hard, not really forgiving mistakes, but anyway we made another step and hopefully we can do another one for tomorrow’s race.”
