Marc Márquez (Honda Repsol Team) has once again placed himself at the top of the times classification during the last test day held at the Austin Circuit of the Americas. With the departure yesterday of the components of the Yamaha team, the closing of the tests has been a parade of Honda, with only the color note of the CRT of Blake Young.
The Lleida has managed to lower their times in half a second compared to the second day and was already very close to go down to 2’02. Specifically his best time was 2’03.281, which leaves his teammate Dani Pedrosa (Honda Repsol Team), second again more than six tenths away.
Marc Márquez has swollen to spin, specifically 60 in total while Dani Pedrosa, with a pain in the neck that bothered him enough on the bike, has chosen not to force and after 24 laps ended the tests in Texas.
Stefan Bradl (LCR Honda MotoGP) also finished the workouts very happy, with a best time of 2’04.225 and surely the advantage of having driven here will be noticed in the race against those “second group” riders.
Blake Young and the CRT of the Attack Permormance has continued to roll and accumulate experience and kilometers although they are still far from the times of the rest of the CRT since the difference with Marc Márquez almost goes to ten seconds.
Marc Márquez:
Today was the last day and it went well. From the beginning I had the same sensations as yesterday; this morning we started working on the set-up of the bike for the first time and we have improved a lot in some aspects. After eating we considered whether we were doing a race simulation, but in the end we decided to focus on the electronics of the bike.
It has been important to train in Austin, since the second race of the season will be here. It’s a pretty physical circuit – especially the first sector – but now we know a little more about this track and we have a good base for when we come here for the Grand Prix.
Dani Pedrosa:
After the first start on the track this morning I felt pain in my neck -I’m not sure what it was due to but it affected my driving-, so I decided not to go around a lot. Everything went well, it has been three positive days and I am happy to have come because we have been able to drive around the circuit a lot and that has been good for us to learn the layout, which is very technical and complicated. The braking is very strong and there are some curves that are blind, so it is important to have trained here, to know what is the best point to enter these curves.
As for the set-up of the bike, we could not prove much because it is a circuit that we do not know and as there were not many drivers on the track the asphalt was not 100%, although it has been improving with the days. We have only tested one type of tire, that of soft compound, but the general sensations are positive. I want to thank Honda for the effort it has made to come here, it has been very valuable and I am very grateful for it.
Marc Márquez (Repsol Honda Team) 60 laps – 2.03.281
Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda Team) 24 laps – 2’03,898
Stefan Bradl (LCR Honda MotoGP) 43 laps – 2.04.225
Blake Young (Attack Performance) 42 laps – 2.12.186 – (CRT)
Motorpasionmoto.com
