Having shared a team, adventures and misadventures at Repsol Honda (from 2013 to 2018) left some good vibes between Dani Pedrosa and Marc Márquez. The one from Castellar, back in the World Championship as a guest on the official KTM, did his former teammate from Cervera a favor by offering him a wheel and making it possible for him to qualify directly for Q2. Márquez took advantage of Pedrosa's slipstream to finish sixth in practice for the San Marino GP. And he thanked him with a gesture of affection: "It was a gesture of admiration, no one drives like him," Márquez bowed to Pedrosa.
It had been a long time since Marc Márquez had led something (crashes ranking aside) in MotoGP. At Misano he was the fastest in sector 4 of the track, the last, a section that he had historically dominated. He beat Pedrosa and Binder by a tenth in that combination of a straight line and a slow 90-degree curve.
That partial superiority in the lap so strange to see and qualifying for Q2 without having to go through the Q1 playoffs were the good news for Marc Márquez in the eye of the media hurricane, since his future (or part of it ) can be settled in Misano. On Monday he tests Honda's new prototype for 2024 ... and it should just tip the scales.
Dani Pedrosa, KTM tester, at 37 years old and in his second appearance this season with a wild-card (in the Spanish GP he was 6th in qualifying and 7th in the race, and led the practice session), He was the protagonist of the first day of Misano. The man from Valles set the tone for 14 minutes of the qualifying practice hour (Practice) to establish the cutoff for Q1 and Q2.
Pedrosa improved Jorge Martín's time twice and led the classification until 20 minutes were left. Then Martín himself, Bezzecchi, Viñales and finally the Ducati of the VR46 improved their time, which achieved the best time of the day. Pedrosa finished with the third best time, 255 thousandths behind Bezzecchi.
