Losail, Qatar – 27 March 2015: Both Team Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS riders improved their lap times significantly during today’s single Moto2 free practice session in Qatar.

Tito Rabat was one of only three riders to break the two minute barrier at the Losail International Circuit to finish third today, while Alex Marquez improved his lap time by more than a second to finish 11th.

Rabat was hampered by traffic during the session, making it difficult for the reigning Moto2 World Champion to find a good rhythm, but he eventually found a clear track and posted a time of 1’59.993 on his very last flying lap.

Marquez’s fastest lap came a little earlier in the session; when he took advantage of a tow from his Team Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS teammate to fine tune his lines around the 5.4km Losail International Circuit.

Both Rabat and Marquez are confident of further improvement during qualifying, which is the only session for the Moto2 class tomorrow.

Tito Rabat: 3rd – 1’59.993
“Today we improved a little, making another step forward, but we weren’t the only ones to do so, as the timesheet shows. I came across many slower riders on track, which made it difficult to find a good rhythm today. For tomorrow we need to make another big step and cut the deficit to the leading two riders if we are to be in the best position for the race on Sunday. We have some ideas for further improvements, especially now that there is more grip available on track, and we will look at these in more depth tonight.”

Alex Marquez: 11th – 2’01.030
“I’m happy because we made another step tonight and that’s the important thing; to always improve. In the session I had a really good rhythm, so for tomorrow in qualifying we just need to decide when and how we try to make our fast laps. I want to say thank you to Tito, because he helped me a lot tonight; he’s a great teammate to have. So, overall I’m very happy. Yes, we need to improve further tomorrow but today, only our second in Qatar, it was very positive for us.”