Both Marc Marquez and Jorge Lorenzo leave Qatar pleased with progress made ahead of round one, finishing the test in fourth and sixth respectively.

Incredibly high winds were waiting as the Repsol Honda Team arrived at the Losail International Circuit for the final day of pre-season testing. This delayed Marc Marquez and Jorge Lorenzo slightly as the track opened, but both riders were able to make up the lost time during their remaining time on track. Temperature fell during the night, causing a spate of late crashes.

When the wind did drop, riders began to fly. Marc Marquez led the charge and set a succession of quick laps, settling on a 1’54.613 before the end of his run. A fall at Turn 6 with two hours remaining did little to dent his confidence and he soon returned to running. With 144 laps completed, Marquez’s time of 1’54.613 saw him end the Qatar Test in fourth.

Jorge Lorenzo remained focused on steadily improving his feeling and pace with the Honda RC213V, again bettering his lap time from the previous day. A 1’54.653 late in the test showed clear progress for the pairing. Despite a fall at Turn 2, Lorenzo ended the test in sixth after 115 laps.

Over at LCR Honda MotoGP, Takaaki Nakagami finished a strong 9th fastest, whilst Cal Crutchlow focused on improving his feeling with the 2019 machine, and was happy with the progress made over the last three nights of work to finish 17th fastest but having focused on work on the bike rather than on setting a lap time.

The Repsol Honda Team now return to their respective homes before travelling back to Qatar, ready for Free Practice 1 of the Qatar GP on Friday, March 8 and the opening race on Sunday, March 10 under the floodlights.


Marc Marquez 93 - 4th

“I feel ready today, ready to start the season. Like yesterday we did a lot of laps, worked well and made some more steps. We’re still not 100% but we have a good feeling. Qatar is a track where normally we struggle, but at this test we are there with everyone else. It was a bit difficult with the wind and the temperature on track tonight but we still did what we needed to.”


Jorge Lorenzo 99 - 6th

“We started the test not adjusting the setting. When we started to work on the setting we were able to improve the bike and our speed. I could ride the bike better, we improved things a little here and a little there and made a big step to be competitive already. We’re very satisfied, the potential is certainly there and it is just my third day as an official Honda rider because before I wasn’t fully fit. When I’m fit and riding better, we can be even stronger.”

Takaaki Nakagami 30 - 9th

“I had a pretty nasty crash during the test, but fortunately I am ok. When I had the crash I took a fair bit of impact to my body, but I am thankfully fine apart from a little pain. In few days I’ll be good again.”

“After the crash it was difficult, but we were able to improve the feeling and the lap time, so I am really happy to end the test like this.”

“Now the pre-season tests are over, and I think we are ready for the season to start. I am hugely motivated to go racing, and happy with the whole LCR Honda IDEMITSU team. They have done a great job during testing, and I want to thank them for their efforts.”

“Next weekend we will be racing, and I am looking forward to it so much!”

Cal Crutchlow 35 - 17th

“Today my feeling was a little bit better with the bike, but we only had limited resources as realistically there was only one bike to use. Overall, I felt we improved the setting of the bike. Unfortunately, halfway through the session I had a crash, and it took us quite a bit of time to rebuild that machine. We went back out and did a couple of runs, and then we wanted to make a bigger change and that took some time again.

“We’re very pleased with the work we have done, and while we’re not pleased with the position, we never went after a lap time today. Overall, I think we have a better pace than what the position says because we just stuck with the medium compound tyres tonight. We’ll see what we can do in a couple of weeks’ time back here in Qatar, but we are all looking forward to being back racing.”