Pol Espargaro was bitterly disappointed after crashing on a potential qualifying lap during Q2 of the Catalonia GP. Marc Marquez should start as 13th.
Free practice 3 at the Grand Prix of Catalonia turned out to be another devastatingly close session with just a few hundredths of a second separating several drivers in the combined classification. Unfortunately for the Repsol Honda Team Duo, those final hundredths of a second alluded to them and the pair headed for Q1.
With a 1’39.519 in FP3, Pol Espargaro only missed the top spot by 0.590s and was less than 0.1s away from a position within the combined top ten. That near-miss showed that Espargaro and the Honda RC213V had the potential to make it through Q1 later in the day. The advancement is exactly what Espargaro did, a 1: 39.170 that gave him the pass in Q2 and the first four rows. After leaving his run late in the second quarter, the # 44 flew on its final lap, showing top 5 pace until a front-end crash at Turn 10 ended Espargaro’s session. He starts as 12th on Sunday.
Marquez looked for any advantage in Q1 as he battled for a spot in Q2, the session ending with the final run across the finish line. Only 0.011 seconds separated Marquez from second place in the session, the eight-time world champion was unable to advance into Q2 as his team-mate from the Repsol Honda team was just ousting him. This is only the third time in his career in the premier class that Marquez could not move into Q2. Marquez will start 13th in the Catalonia GP.
The race on Sunday starts at 1:00 p.m. local time after the Moto3 race.