MotoGP – Syahrin with tough qualifying and Marquez secures another “pole”

Bruno Gomes

March 30, 2019

Hafizh Syahrin | Photo credits: MotoGP

Malaysian rider Hafizh Syahrin had another tough qualifying session this season, now for the upcoming Argentina GP this Sunday, at the Termas de Rio Hondo circuit. The young rider of the Red Bull KTM Tech3 team feels more and more comfortable riding the KTM RC16 prototype, but his second season in MotoGP is far from what it was last season when Syahrin debuted in this championship.

Today, at the Argentinian track, Hafizh Syahrin battled in Qualifying 1 to try and get into Qualifying 2, but even though he did improve his lap time, managing a 1m40.053s which allowed him to finish qualifying 1 in 11th spot, and get the 21st spot on the starting grid for Sunday’s race

“We made a quite big improvement today, but we still need to find something a bit easier to ride with regards to the race pace, because at the moment, we have a really good rhythm, but we were missing something in terms of traction in the exit of the corners. Anyway, we believe that we are getting closer and closer now, but we still need to work more, understand more. I’m happy about this Qualifying, although I know we are still quite far from the top, but my feeling with the bike is a lot better than in Qatar and all the tests before. We just need to keep working hard and even more. Let’s see what we can do in tomorrow’s Warm Up in order to find a bit extra traction for the race distance”, says Hafizh Syahrin.

Photo credits: News.com.au

With the second half of the grid sorted, it was the fight for the “pole position” that caught MotoGP fans attention. Reigning champion Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda) was the strongest rider on track, and with another near-perfect performance, the Spaniard secured another top spot for a MotoGP race.

In second place on the grid, Maverick Viñales (Monster Energy Yamaha) is more than happy, since he wasn’t expecting to be able to get so high in the timesheets, especially in qualifying, after he didn’t do so good during the four free practice sessions.

The factory Yamaha rider was able to demote Andrea Dovizioso (Mission Winnow Ducati) to the last spot of the first line on the grid, but the winner of the Qatar GP, and championship leader, is riding well (although he suffered a minor crash in practice), and his Ducati Desmosedici GP19, fitted with the rear tire spoiler, seems to be very competitive in Termas de Rio Hondo circuit.

All these ingredients point to a very interesting MotoGP race in Argentina, and iMotorbike will bring you all the latest results and race reports from the Argentina GP!