Marquez shakes off mechanical issue, fall to top warm-up
Marc Marquez had an eventful warm-up at Jerez marked by a Repsol Honda mechanical problem, an embarrassing fall in pit lane before setting the fastest laps
Full warm-up results at the Spanish MotoGP
Marc Marquez had an eventful warm-up at Jerez marked by a Repsol Honda mechanical problem, an embarrassing fall in pit lane before setting the fastest laps in the session ahead of the Spanish MotoGP.
The reigning MotoGP world champion, who took victory at Jerez 12 months ago, suffered what appeared to be a complete power loss with his RC213V around the final corner. While attempting to cut back into pit lane, Marquez dropped his Repsol Honda at pit entry before quickly picking up his bike and returning to his garage.
After checks to both his bikes, Marquez returned to track action and set a blistering pace compared to his rivals to surge to the top of the times before settling on 1m 37.595s to pull out over a third of a second on nearest challenger Maverick Vinales on the Monster Yamaha.
Joan Mir impressed for Suzuki in warm-up with third place ahead of Franco Morbidelli on the Petronas Yamaha following the team’s historic 1-2 in qualifying.
Takaaki Nakagami also produced a late surge in fifth place for LCR Honda ahead of Aleix Espargaro for Aprilia, with the latter using a soft tyre which is not fancied as a race tyre, which put him ahead of youngest-ever top class pole-sitter Fabio Quartararo on the Petronas Yamaha.
Ducati’s Danilo Petrucci ended warm-up in eighth place ahead of LCR Honda’s Cal Crutchlow as championship leader Andrea Dovizioso rounded out the top 10.
That saw Jorge Lorenzo just miss out in 11th for Repsol Honda, ending the session 0.667s slower than pace-setting team-mate Marquez, but in front of Red Bull KTM’s Pol Espargaro and HRC wildcard rider Stefan Bradl.
With Tito Rabat taking 14th place, Valentino Rossi’s struggles continued at Jerez for Monster Yamaha down in 15th place but ahead of Americas MotoGP winner Alex Rins (Suzuki).
With Aprilia wildcard Bradley Smith in 17th, Pramac Ducati’s Jack Miller remained off the pace in 18th place ahead of Johann Zarco on the Red Bull KTM. Avintia Ducati’s Karel Abraham claimed 20th ahead of Miguel Oliveira (Red Bull KTM Tech 3), Francesco Bagnaia (Pramac Ducati) and birthday rider Hafizh Syahrin (Red Bull KTM Tech 3).
Andrea Iannone has been ruled out of the remainder of the Spanish MotoGP with a foot injury sustained in FP4.
