The eight-time World Champion will launch his Repsol Honda Team RC213V from the front row for the last race of 2022, eager to deliver a memorable final result.
Battling a heavy cold, Marc Marquez was able to surprise even himself with the speed he showed on Saturday in Valencia. Again splitting his weekend between the present and future, the #93 and his crew worked meticulously on Saturday to find constant improvements to the setup of the Honda RC213V for the task ahead. Ending Free Practice 3 in fifth and already in the low 1’30s, Marquez felt he was near his limit but when the time came he and the Honda made another step forward. A best time of 1’29.826 earned Marquez second on the grid for Sunday’s race, 0.205s shy of pole. The time was also two tenths faster than Marquez’s 2019 Q2 time at Valencia – where he also took second on the grid.
This is Marquez’s third consecutive front row and the fourth since his return in Aragon. The upward trend continues as he sets off on Sunday afternoon with the podium as his aim. Times, especially in regard to race pace, are incredibly close and with the MotoGP World Championship still up for grabs Sunday’s race looks set to be a fierce battle throughout the field.
Pol Espargaro has a monumental task ahead of him as he starts his final race with the Repsol Honda Team down in 22nd after a crash in Q1. A promising Free Practice 4 session, where he ended in fourth and showed consistent pace throughout, shows the potential is there should everything come together at the start. More than anything, Espargaro is aiming to put on a strong race for the home fans and to say thank you to the Repsol Honda Team after two years together.
With the Circuit Ricardo Tormo measuring in at just four kilometres long, the Valencia GP will run across 27 laps. The final set of lights for 2022 will go out at 14:00 Local Time.