MotoGP, Marquez from 11th to 3rd: my fault, I wasn't riding at 100%

Doctor Marc and Mister Marquez, the little devil has made a transformation in the space of a few hours. In the morning he was struggling, even outside of the top ten, whereas in the afternoon he was ahead of the rest straight away (with the hard tyre), finishing the session in 3^rd place (with the soft).

“I didn’t feel comfortable on the bike. Sometimes that happens. It wasn’t just a setup problem; it was just that I wasn’t riding at 100% - he explains – In fact, I started the second session with the same bike I had used to finish the first and made a good time immediately.”

The new Marquez also knows how to wait.

“In the morning I wasn’t trying to find a fast lap at any cost, but when you feel good with the bike everything is easier.”

And the Honda is still not the way he would like it to be.

“Acceleration is still where we are weak, here especially coming out of turn 5 and the last ‘S’ – he explains – The bike tends to rear up. It also happened last year, but then I was able to make up ground on the Yamahas in fifth and sixth gear, whereas it isn’t like that anymore.”

Despite everything, Marc took a while.

“I have a good pace and I’m with the leaders, together with Valentino and Iannone, but my championship rivals are Rossi and Lorenzo – he emphasises – Tyre choice for the race will also be important and I am going well with both.”

Dani Pedrosa is having more troubles, only 11^th at the end of the day and never in the game. It could not have started worse for the Spaniard.

“There was nothing positive. I didn’t have a good feeling and I didn’t do any good times, no matter what tyre or setup I used”, his summary is anything but rosy.

First and foremost, tomorrow he will have to hope for a good time in order to qualify for Q2 directly, “the first goal”, and then try to solve the problems on his bike.

“Today I wasn’t able to keep the throttle open on the straight or in the fast corners – he says – The bike moved around too much, especially shifting gears, and I risked losing control. I don’t know what the reason was.”