Sixth and seventh on the grid for Repsol Honda Team in Misano 18.09.2021: Gran Premio di San Marino e della Riviera di Rimini MotoGP 2021 Round 14 Saturday, September 18th 2021 0.012s split the Repsol Honda Team pairing of Pol Espargaro and Marc Marquez as dry weather returned to Misano, Marquez walking away from two

Gran Premio di San Marino e della Riviera di Rimini
MotoGP 2021   Round 14
Saturday, September 18th 2021

0.012s split the Repsol Honda Team pairing of Pol Espargaro and Marc Marquez as dry weather returned to Misano, Marquez walking away from two falls.


Friday’s rainstorms were nowhere to be seen as the sun beat down on the San Marino Grand Prix, riders eager to use Free Practice 3 to improve their previous times. The MotoGP field continued to tighten over the course of the day as the premier class extracted the maximum performance from their machines.



Pol Espargaro diligently went to work in Free Practice 3, the #44 determined to finish the morning session in the top ten after his positive feelings early on Friday in the dry. A steady session of constant improvements saw Espargaro accomplish just that, lapping the Misano circuit in 1’32.416.


Free Practice 4 was used by Espargaro and his squad to experiment ahead of the race on Sunday, gathering useful data for the future.



Then in Q2, Espargaro  left his run late and secured sixth on the grid with his final lap of the session, improving his FP3 time by another half a second for the second row of the grid. This is now Espargaro’s third straight top-ten result in Qualifying.



An important Free Practice 3 session began for Marc Marquez as he started the day’s work, building his speed throughout the session. Unfortunately, Marquez suffered a fall in the last minutes of Free Practice 3 at Turn 14, although unharmed he was unable to improve his time and entered Q1. The eight-time World Champion did all he needed to do in the first 15-minute session, passing into Q2 to join his Repsol Honda Team teammate.



With a provisional fourth place in his pocket after his first run of the second session, Marquez went out looking for more on his final run but suffered a second fall, this time at Turn 9. Again unharmed, Marquez will start at the head of the third row in seventh. Despite the falls, Marquez is pleased with his progress on Saturday.



Sunday’s San Marino Grand Prix will begin at 14:00 Local Time, the race running over the course of 27 laps. Before that, the Repsol Honda Team will have 20-minutes of morning Warm Up to confirm their settings for the race with the weather still looming as a question mark.   
    
    

    
    
Pol Espargaro  44
SIXTH  1'31.923


“We had an interesting day and made the most of the dry track time today. We still have one or two things to confirm in Warm Up but I am satisfied overall today. Sixth position is good but our distance to Bagnaia is a bit too big for my liking.


Tomorrow will be a hard race because Ducati look to have something extra here, but I think we can fight behind them in the race. It can be very difficult to overtake here so starting on the second row is really important. Let’s make a good start, fight and see what’s possible – tomorrow is a new day.”         

    
    

    
    
Marc Marquez  93
SEVENTH  1'31.935


"I’m happy about today because in Free Practice 3 we found ourselves struggling a lot. Q1 is always really difficult but with HRC we made a really nice strategy, so I want to say thank you to HRC and Bradl because he was the guy to open the track.



In Q2 I pushed again and I was able to make a good lap, I’m happy because I have been struggling at this circuit a lot. We are not very far from the top considering this."         

    
       
    

    San Marino Grand Prix Qualifying Results


1    BAGNAIA Francesco     63    ITA    Ducati Lenovo Team    Ducati    1'31.065
2    MILLER Jack     43    AUS    Ducati Lenovo Team    Ducati    0.249
3    QUARTARARO Fabio     20    FRA    Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP    Yamaha    0.302
4    MARTIN Jorge     89    SPA    Pramac Racing    Ducati    0.598
5    ZARCO Johann     5    FRA    Pramac Racing    Ducati    0.771
6    ESPARGARO Pol     44    SPA    Repsol Honda Team    Honda    0.858
7    MARQUEZ Marc     93    SPA    Repsol Honda Team    Honda    0.870
8    ESPARGARO Aleix     41    SPA    Aprilia Racing Team Gresini    Aprilia    0.872
9    RINS Alex     42    SPA    Team Suzuki Ecstar    Suzuki    0.952
10    VINALES Maverick     12    SPA    Aprilia Racing Team Gresini    Aprilia    1.056
11    MIR Joan     36    SPA    Team Suzuki Ecstar    Suzuki    1.361
12    BASTIANINI Enea     23    ITA    Avintia Esponsorama    Ducati    1.396
13    NAKAGAMI Takaaki     30    JPN    LCR Honda    Honda    0.334 Q1
14    PIRRO Michele     51    ITA    Ducati Test Team    Ducati    0.411
15    MARINI Luca     10    ITA    SKY VR46 Avintia    Ducati    0.413
16    MORBIDELLI Franco     21    ITA    Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP    Yamaha    0.420
17    BINDER Brad     33    RSA    Red Bull KTM Factory Racing    KTM    0.551
18    BRADL Stefan     6    GER    Team HRC    Honda    0.563
19    MARQUEZ Alex     73    SPA    LCR Honda    Honda    0.600
20    LECUONA Iker     27    SPA    Tech 3 KTM Factory Racing    KTM    0.605
21    OLIVEIRA Miguel     88    POR    Red Bull KTM Factory Racing    KTM    0.945
22    PETRUCCI Danilo     9    ITA    Tech 3 KTM Factory Racing    KTM    1.015
23    ROSSI Valentino     46    ITA    Petronas Yamaha SRT    Yamaha    1.091
24    DOVIZIOSO Andrea     4    ITA    Petronas Yamaha SRT    Yamaha    1.222
    
    
    
    

Repsol Honda Team - MotoGP, also photos