Thrills and spills
World champion Marquez handed six-grid penalty after taking pole
Repsol Honda rider Marc Marquez (right) pushing his bike after a crash as Movistar Yamaha’s Valentino Rossi zooms past during the Shell Malaysia Motorcycle Grand Prix qualifying session at the Sepang International Circuit yesterday. The organisers decided to shift the MotoGP race today forward by two hours to 1pm. — Bernama
NEWLY-crowned MotoGP world champion Marc Marquez mastered the tricky and wet qualifying conditions to clock the fastest time at the Shell Malaysia Motorcycle Grand Prix - but his joy was short-lived.
The Repsol Honda Team rider from Spain found out on his way back to the hotel that he was slapped with a six-place grid penalty following a post-qualifying FIM stewards investigation.
Marquez will start from the seventh place for the 20-lap race at Sepang today, and his misery was a blessing for Frenchman Johann Zarco of Monster Yamaha Tech3 as the latter was promoted to the pole position.
Marquez was placed under investigation by the FIM stewards following an incident at Turn 9 with Italian rider Andrea Iannone from Suzuki Team.
Marquez was found guilty of riding “in an irresponsible manner being slow on the racing line and disturbing another rider”, according to a brief statement from the MotoGP organisers.
“I accept the decision. It’s their choice. The most important is I set the fastest time and I know we have the pace. My target is still to fight for a podium,” said Marquez.
He had earlier crashed midway through the second qualifying session but remained in superior form to set the quickest lap of 2:12.161.
Rain hit the Malaysian track midway through the free practice four session and it was pouring when the first segment of qualifying kicked off.
The action was red-flagged due to standing water on the track and it took another 80 minutes before the rain eased off to allow the riders to return to action.
It was Marquez who looked at ease and quicker than his rivals as he immediately went to the top of the timesheets with his second flying lap.
Marquez, who wrapped up the world title at the Japan GP in Motegi last month, claimed his only premier class win at Sepang in 2014 and he is determined to end the four-year wait.
The Malaysian GP race has been brought forward by two hours to 1.00pm to counter the threat of rain.
“I profit from one of my strongest poinst today – handling the wet condition. We knew it would be a wet and tricky, so we were prepared,” said Marquez.
“I keep pushing but I lost the front after that. Then, I took the second bike out and I am happy I got a fast time,” he said earlier – before he was handed the penalty.
Zarco, who posted 2:12.709 with his final flying lap, said he knew he was heading for a good qualifying result from the start of the session.
“From the first lap, I knew something is possible. On the last lap, my feeling was great, but I was sliding on the rear in turn three and in turn four. I lost a few tenths, so I was not sure if I could have done the lap time of Marc (Marquez),” he said.
“Anyway, it was great. I wish for a podium tomorrow (today).
Italian veteran Valentino Rossi, a crowd favourite at Sepang and a six-time champion here, will also start on the front row after the Yamaha rider was promoted to second with 2:13.009.
“I thought we would have no qualifying as the weather forecast predicted rain until 8pm. It was important for us to be on the front row to have a chance tomorrow,” said Rossi.
“I feel good with the bike today although we were using old tyres for qualifying. It’s good they agreed to start earlier tomorrow as we have more chance to race or otherwise, we won’t race,” said Rossi.
Italian Andrea Dovizioso, riding for Ducati, will start from fifth place following a late crash at Turn 9.
Dovizioso, who has won the race here for the last two years, posted 2:13.183.
Ducati rider Jordi Torres from Spain will sit out the race after fracturing a finger on his right hand during qualifying.