A positive Saturday for Marc Marquez who surpassed his early weekend expectations, earning entrance into Q2 and fighting for the top ten in the Sprint. Joan Mir meanwhile aims for more on Sunday. Faint spells of rain couldn't keep the fans away as the grands View this email in your browser   Sprint Race Report Saturday, Sep 2nd 2023   Gran Premi de Catalunya MotoGP 2023   Round 11 Boosted Marquez takes fight to Q2 and the top ten A positive Saturday for Marc Marquez who surpassed his early weekend expectations, earning entrance into Q2 and fighting for the top ten in the Sprint. Joan Mir meanwhile aims for more on Sunday. Faint spells of rain couldn't keep the fans away as the grandstands around the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya steadily filled through the day. Marc Marquez did his best to give the home fans something to cheer about as he hustled his Repsol Honda Team RC213V around the track. A near perfect lap in Q1 saw the eight-time World Champion secure a spot in the top two and advance through to Q2 to secure 12th, a result he believed would be impossible less than 24 hours ago. From the fourth row, the #93 gave his all in the opening half of the race to stay with the leading group, able to match their pace. As the race went on and the leaders opened their advantage, Marquez settled into his rhythm to bring his Honda home once again. Crossing the line in 11th, Marquez is content with the overall speed he showed on Saturday – the Q1 lap providing a welcome confidence boost. On the other side of the Repsol Honda Team garage, Joan Mir's work continued. Improved grip was once again his and the team's primary objective during practice. Qualifying and the Sprint race highlighted that there is still work to be done overnight for the 2020 MotoGP World Champion. Sunday's feature race is scheduled to start at 14:00 Local Time with higher temperatures currently predicted. This combined with the full 24-lap race distance will present the 22 MotoGP riders with a very different challenge when the lights go out. Marc Marquez  93 11th  "I had an important day today, for me, for my feeling and my confidence. It was just Q1, but we were able to do a really strong lap and be much faster than we expected. In the Sprint race I was able to stay with the top group for half the race more or less, pushing to the limit, but we were able to do it. Both of these things give me a bit of extra motivation to keep carrying out our work in this way. Tomorrow will be a much longer race, so let's see what we can manage in that." Joan Mir  36 21st  "Today's race was very difficult, this is clear. We continued to struggle with grip and the reality is that there are many corners here which highlight our weaknesses. The team and I will spend tonight looking at everything deeply to try and improve the situation for tomorrow. I am still able to brake and enter the corner well, but we need to work on the other areas." Catalan GP - Sprint Race Pos. Rider Num Nation Points Team Constructor Time/Gap 1 Espargaro Aleix 41 SPA 12 Aprilia Racing Aprilia 20'02.744 2 Bagnaia Francesco 1 ITA 9 Ducati Lenovo Team Ducati 1.989 3 Vinales Maverick 12 SPA 7 Aprilia Racing Aprilia 2.040 4 Binder Brad 33 RSA 6 Red Bull KTM Factory Racing KTM 2.857 5 Martin Jorge 89 SPA 5 Pramac Racing Ducati 4.341 6 Oliveira Miguel 88 POR 4 RNF MotoGP Team Aprilia 4.940 7 Zarco Johann 5 FRA 3 Pramac Racing Ducati 6.746 8 Bezzecchi Marco 72 ITA 2 Mooney VR46 Racing Team Ducati 6.888 9 Bastianini Enea 23 ITA 1 Ducati Lenovo Team Ducati 8.068 10 Marquez Alex 73 SPA 0 Team Gresini Racing MotoGP Ducati 10.380 11 Marquez Marc 93 SPA 0 Repsol Honda Team Honda 11.823 12 Marini Luca 10 ITA 0 Mooney VR46 Racing Team Ducati 11.900 13 Di Giannantonio Fabio 49 ITA 0 Team Gresini Racing MotoGP Ducati 12.018 14 Fernandez Raul 25 SPA 0 RNF MotoGP Team Aprilia 13.284 15 Morbidelli Franco 21 ITA 0 Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP Yamaha 16.207 16 Miller Jack 43 AUS 0 Red Bull KTM Factory Racing KTM 16.404 17 Fernandez Augusto 37 SPA 0 Tech3 GASGAS Factory Racing KTM 16.534 18 Quartararo Fabio 20 FRA 0 Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP Yamaha 17.147 19 Lecuona Iker 27 SPA 0 LCR Honda Honda 18.658 20 Nakagami Takaaki 30 JPN 0 LCR Honda Honda 19.080 21 Mir Joan 36 SPA 0 Repsol Honda Team Honda 19.574 22 Espargaro Pol 44 SPA DNF Tech3 GASGAS Factory Racing KTM DNF Copyright Free Images For editorial use only, click here to download images. Location Information In 1989, through the joint collaboration of the Catalan Autonomous Government, the Montmeló Town Council and the Royal Automobile Club of Catalunya (RACC), work began on giving one of Europe's most beautiful cities a state of the art race track to match. The Circuit de Catalunya opened on the doorstep… read more. Length 4.627 kilometres / 2.875 miles Width 12 metres Left corners 5 Right corners 8 Longest straight 1.047 kilometres / 0.651 miles Constructed 1991 Modified 2018 Circuit Records Pole Position 1m38.639s (169.9km/h) Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati, 2023) Race Lap 1m39.939 (167.7km/h) Johann Zarco (Ducati, 2021) Race Time 40'21.749 (166.1km/h) Miguel Oliveira (KTM, 2021) 2023 Sprint Winner Aleix Espargaro (Aprilia) 2022 Race Winner Fabio Quartararo (Yamaha) Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, Montmeló, Catalunya, Spain –  View in Google Maps www.circuitcat.com You are receiving this email because you have registered your interest with Honda Racing CorporationIf you no longer want to receive emails from Repsol Honda Team - MotoGP, please click here to unsubscribe .