Jerez-Saturday review

Marc Marquez next to his destroyed Repsol Honda in the gravel bed – a black Saturday for the 2019 world champion and whoever counts him among the favorites for titles runs the risk of making himself ridiculous in public.

Conclusion after the second day of MotoGP in Jerez

While it felt like more than half of the cameras were lingering with Marc Marquez and his box, we first concentrate on the sporting highlights of the second day in Andalusia. There is a man to be mentioned here who arrived in Jerez as the World Cup leader and apparently everything is going according to his wishes. On the first two days, Fabio Quartararo was the driver who was able to convince the most in the premier class. In addition, his Yamaha brand colleague Franco Morbidelli, who already believed he was safe in Q2 after FP3, but in the end still had to go through Q1. The few centimeters by which he made himself a “track limit sinner” are absolutely ridiculous from a sporting point of view. An ideal platform for regulatory popes to draw attention to themselves, as many critics of the FIM commissioners at least see it.

Fabio Quartararo (Monster Energy Yamaha) – the crown favorite for the race for most observers. Last year’s double winner is in absolutely enviable form and has not yet made a serious mistake this season.

Morbido’s masterpiece and the Miller comeback – plus many surprises
How easily the Italian drove the best time in Q1 and was only beaten by Quartararo in the second qualifying was very impressive. Jack Miller, on the other hand, only slipped straight into Q2 thanks to Morbido’s centimeter decision. Here, however, the Australian was able to fully convince and drove behind the two best Yamahas in row one. Francesco Bagnaia, the fastest in FP2, made it into the second row literally at the last minute, where he will start next to Takaaki Nakagami and Johann Zarco on Sunday. Maverick Viñales only in row 3 was like P5 of the Japanese on the Honda one of the surprises that few had expected before. In addition to the Catalan, there are two other drivers, Aleix Espargaró and Alex Rins, from the Spanish autonomous community, which is the most important region of motorsport in their country. World champion Joan Mir also comes from there, but next to Binder on the best KTM only starts from row 4.

Franco Morbidelli (Petronas Yamaha SRT) – despite the desolate start of the season in Losail since the Portugal Grand Prix, the Italian definitely has to be taken into account when it comes to top positions. A really cool sock for his performance on Saturday.

The events on Saturday morning

A look back at the second day of MotoGP in Jerez de la Frontera shows at least that Marc Marquez is definitely not a superman. Allegedly he was on antibiotics, which understandably surprised many observers. Either way, Saturday was not his day at the Circuito de Jerez. The Repsol Honda driver said he had spared his arm the day before and then attacked in FP3. This attempt failed, and he ended up in the hospital for an examination. The Catalan came back for FP4, but in the end there was no more than 14th place. He was even lucky that Oliveira’s best lap was canceled. It was also interesting that the two Repsol Honda factory riders were clearly overshadowed by the customer team pilot Nakagami. Test driver Bradl was also faster, but he had previously had many test kilometers in Jerez, which gave him a clear advantage over all Honda drivers.

Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda) on all fours in the gravel bed of turn 7 – a left turn, its “stronger” side. On the previous evening he stated that he and his team had changed the strategy and therefore wanted to take more care of his right arm on the first day. But as this recording shows, this tactic went badly wrong, and he fell violently in FP3.

The Suzukis – can they become spoilers again in Jerez?

Last year, Alex Rins and Joan Mir were mostly the strongest drivers in the second half. However, it is not yet certain whether they will really be able to play at the top at the Circuito de Jerez. With their starting position, they won’t find an easy situation at the start of the race. Up to the first corner it could even be that they still lose places, because Binder apparently has a very good starting device with the KTM. In this respect, you will only see after the first round who has sorted themselves in which place. From then on, it will also be clear early on whether Marc Marquez can be expected in the race despite his crash, or whether he will have to be satisfied with a lower position again this time, as in Portugal. The same applies to Valentino Rossi, who had done extremely well last year. After the start, the first corner should definitely be a key point as far as the future of the Spanish Grand Prix is concerned.