Qatar test Day 2: Ninth place

Marquez comes ninth in the second day of Qatar training.  On his first run, he improves on the previous day’s time by nearly half a second before crashing without consequences at Turn 1. He re-joins the action and tries various chassis settings on his RC213V. With approximately one hour remaining, he tires a new aerodynamic solution, using a new fairing with winglets. He runs 42 laps with a quickest time of 1’56.046 (Lap 4), 0.610s off the pace of Maverick Viñales.

We have improved the feeling when cornering – the bike turns in a little more – and that has allowed us to lower our times slightly, but we still have some problems exiting corners. The pace we have is good although we are still finding it difficult to get rear grip…In the last run we tested some small winglets and we will have to analyse them well, because we only used them for one four-lap stint, so there will be further research and development. It is only the first prototype.