Folger feared he might not race after sickness scare

The Tech 3 Yamaha rider struggled through Friday’s practice sessions as he was still recovering from the stomach bug, but his condition improved enough overnight to qualify 10th on Saturday.

“They didn’t take the blood and check, but they say it’s norovirus, they guess” said Folger after qualifying.

“It’s a stomach thing, really hard. The first day I had it I couldn’t even stand up.

“I was really bad. I had doubts that I could even ride this weekend, so I’m more than happy to be P10 now and to feel much better.

“I didn’t make many laps yesterday, really bad laps because I had no energy. Really today was the first day for me to ride this track, and to get confident with the lines and get into a good flow.

“I can feel [the difference] on the bike, I have more control and I can ride more normal than I did yesterday.”

"Riding on the limit"

Folger, who said he felt at 70% today and expects to improve further by the time of the race, had to advance through Q1 to make it to the final qualifying session, but that added track time was a bonus given his disrupted running on Friday.

“It’s never nice to be in Q1 but maybe it was good, yeah,” he said when asked by Motorsport.com about the benefits of having the extra session.

“I could do more laps riding on the limit, and then in Q2 I made a faster lap again, so it was good overall.”

Teammate Johann Zarco qualified two places ahead in eighth, which he believes was the maximum result possible given the speed of the frontrunners ahead of him, led by Marc Marquez’s record-setting sub-two-minute pole lap.

“We are all going so fast this weekend,” said Zarco. “In qualifying I could not do better, I must be happy with eighth.

“The most difficult thing in the race will be to keep this high pace because I think a guy like Marquez, even [Cal] Crutchlow here, [Valentino] Rossi is always able to do it, [Maverick] Vinales, they can all be fast.

“They keep this pace but in FP4 I got some problems at the end of the session.

“They are good riders in front and they are pushing – nothing special, just good riders.”