Alex Marquez escapes a lap speed in Brno while Stefan Bradl gains more speed on a busy day, the Repsol Honda Team pair are ready to fight forwards on Sunday.
Saturday in Brno was a day of contrasts for MotoGP rookie Alex Marquez, the 2019 Moto2 race winner was happy with his racing pace but was still looking for a one-lap speed. After cutting off his best time of 1.2 seconds from Friday to Saturday morning, Alex finished third free practice just 1.298 seconds back in first place, but in 19th place and would thus enter Q1. After a few minutes in Free Practice 4, Alex Marquez suffered a crash at Turn 8. Alex returned to the session uninjured and showed strong pace throughout the race. In a difficult Q1 session, the rookie struggled to put together an ideal lap. He will therefore start on the seventh row of the grid for tomorrow’s race but is ready to be aggressive outside the line and show his pace.
Stefan Bradl started his Saturday in the Czech Republic with a big step forward and improved his best time on Friday in FP3 by almost a full second. The German was only 1.4 seconds behind the top position, but was in 20th place in the session, as less than a second separated the top 17 drivers in the premier class. His progress became even more impressive as the German test driver spent much of the day evaluating various options and settings for HRC. He will start from 20th place in the Czech Grand Prix.
2016 Czech GP winner Cal Crutchlow took the top Honda award in 12th on the grid for Sunday’s race after avoiding further injuries in a fall in the second quarter.
Tomorrow’s 21-lap GP in the Czech Republic starts at 2:00 p.m. local time, weather forecasts predict conditions that are very similar to those of today.