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Even if he had rained on the Italians’ parade in the morning, Marc Marquez knew that in qualifying, the level of competition would go even higher.
The number 93 rider, World Champion with his Honda Repsol, finished the session with the sixth best time and a gap behind Valentino of 246 thousandths - a truly small gap but there are 5 positions between Rossi and the Spaniard, from the first to the second row of the starting order: “I had the chance at the second place time – Marc explains – but a small error limited me. At Arrabbiata 2 I was losing the front but I made a great save. I knew that in practice we would struggle a bit, especially considering the afternoon temperatures – higher – and the consequent tyre performance. The medium did not prove to be the right choice. In FP4 we found a good race pace, but in qualifying we struggled.”
There were several near misses: “This weekend I repeated that manoeuvre several times – he explains – It also happened at the Bucine left-hander. I didn’t find that perfect lap and I was unable to make a clean run, but it’s no problem. Even if we are not on the pole, we will be up front in the race.”
Rossi and Viñales were very strong. The factory Yamaha bikes are coming back.
“I’m not surprised at the Yamaha’s performance. I think that it is really a good bike. They are second, third and fourth in the championship standings and Zarco has ridden some great races. The M1 has outstanding acceleration, it works well with the Michelins and I think that Mugello is a Yamaha circuit. In terms of race pace, we are at the same level as Yamaha and Iannone will also be in the mix with his Suzuki. I’ll choose the hard, asymmetrical front. I don’t like it, but it is the only option to finish the race. I’ll use the medium on the rear.”
Considering the advantage in the championship, will you race to win here too?
“I would like to set out to win the race, but at the same time I’ll try not to overdo it. We will need to take home as many points as possible, avoiding taking pointless risks. I don’t feel like I am entirely sorted. We are struggling more than usual, but we are ready to make a play for the podium… and, why not? Even the Grand Prix win, but as I said: I must not take risks tomorrow. The championship is made up of 19 Grand Prix races and I will need to take home precious points on this track where we struggle.”
Rossi is in pole position and says that you will be his main rival for the win.
“Rossi’s pole position is incredible. He is still very fast and he demonstrated as much in the first part of the season. Tomorrow we’ll see how things go. The two Yamahas will certainly be up front and we will try to keep pace with them. It will be a race characterised by a battle where we’ll see a group of a lot of riders ready to win. I think Valentino will be the favourite. He is on his home track with his fans. And then the usual riders: Iannone, Viñales and Dovizioso. I’ll start with the right mentality and I’ll avoid any craziness. I want to take points home for the World Championship.”
On the other side of the garage, Dani Pedrosa struggled in qualifying as we have never seen him struggle before since he began racing in MotoGP. His twentieth place says a lot: "A truly hard weekend – the number 26 Spaniard acknowledges – We battled with poor grip and I also had a crash. We did not have time to sort things for the qualifiers on the second bike. We were unable to express speed because the setup wasn’t perfect. In FP4 I had some problems with physical holding that I had never had before and I don’t know why. The Mugello track puts the rider to a hard test and I don’t know how the race will be tomorrow. Right now, it doesn’t look like it will be easy for us.”
