The work continued in the Repsol Honda Team Box. Alex Marquez finished 18th in qualifying, Stefan Bradl a few tenths behind.
Friday’s strong winds in Barcelona have been replaced with some of the coldest conditions of the 2020 MotoGP season. An ambient temperature of only 12 ° C was waiting for the drivers when they rolled out of the pit lane for free practice 3. Temperatures would improve as the day progressed, but Turn 5 remained a hotspot for falls.
Despite the cold temperatures, Alex Marquez was one of the first drivers to improve his time in RP3 as he worked to stay in the top ten. The MotoGP rookie improved to 1’40.283, which was good enough for 12th place on the MotoGP grid here last year, and just missed a Q2 spot by 0.4 seconds. Although Alex is back on his way to Q1, his early speed shows his continued progress on the Honda RC213V. Alex Marquez ‘1’40.164 in the first quarter was only 0.055 seconds slower than world champion Andrea Dovizioso. The couple should compete side by side on Sunday.
Stefan Bradl’s Saturday in Barcelona was diligently spent evaluating various setup and tire options for the 24-lap MotoGP race. Bradl suffered his second fall of the weekend at Turn 5 during Free Practice 4, but was able to run away again unscathed. A 1,40,721 in the first quarter was Bradl’s best time of the weekend so far, 1.2 seconds faster than his FP1 time on Friday.
Takaaki Nakagami continued his top Honda performances, climbing to 11th on the grid in the first quarter, just 0.05 seconds off the top ten.
The Catalonia GP starts on Sunday at 3:00 p.m. local time. The daily schedule has been postponed by one hour compared to other European races.