Marc Marquez finished the opening day of the 2017 MotoGP season in a positive frame of mind after he positioned his Repsol Honda in second place on the grid.
It was a single practice session at the Losail circuit in Qatar that got underway at five to 8pm local time and lasted for 45 minutes.
Marc constantly improved his times throughout the session and recorded his best time of 1;54.912 on his 17th lap.
“This first day was positive enough because two weeks ago we hadn't finish the test so well, while today I had a better feeling with the bike,” the Spaniard explained. “We started with a different setup compared to then and we did a good job. We have some work to do, especially on the electronics side, but that said I'm quite happy. Maverick is really fast but it was to be expected, and on our side we're working hard in our garage to try and find a good compromise with the setup.”
Meanwhile, teammate Dani Pedrosa also had a positive session setting the third-fastest lap time of 1'55.212” on lap 15 of 16.
“I'm happy with today,” he said. “Even if the track conditions and the grip weren't the best, we tried to push hard in case the weather gets worse tomorrow as the forecast says. It was important to be up front, because everybody is expecting some rain. I'm generally happy and I think we have already gathered a lot of good information. We'll see how things go and keep working to do our best.”
FP2 and FP3 will begin tonight at 6 p.m. and 8:55 p.m. local time, respectively.
