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Marc Marquez smiles slyly after the 100th front row in his career. Being beaten on the flying lap by the two Yamahas, Quartararo's and Vinales', doesn't upset him, as if he already knew that things would have gone well in qualifying. "My goal was the front row, and I'm that's where I am," he said calmly, aware that his best weapons are for the race. So much so that he doesn't even bother hiding his intentions regarding the choice of tires, like the others. "I'll use the hard on the front and the soft on the rear, like everyone else," he confessed candidly.
Maybe he didn't expect to find the same great sensations in Jerez, like last year, after difficult winter tests. All in all, the trick was simple: go back to using the 2019 bike. Even the new frame tested yesterday has been put away for the moment.
“That's true. In the winter tests, I had used a bike that was different, also in aerodynamics," the Spanish rider explained. "Then, with the change in regulations and the stop in development, we understood that it was not the time to try out the innovations. We went back to the 2019 bike with some evolutions."
And everything returned to normal, but not immediately.
"Up until yesterday, I was fast, but I didn't have that sweet sensation I had last year. Today, I rediscovered it," he announced. "I understood what the Honda needed for me to be fast."
Very fast because everyone thinks he's the favorite.
"What will my strategy be tomorrow? It will depend a lot on my position in the first laps. I know that the Yamahas want to start on the offensive and, if they had a good pace, I could also follow them and play my cards at the end. Or, if I were to feel good, I could decide to push from the first to the last lap. Much will also depend on the track conditions after the Moto2 race." His words perfectly reveal how calm he is for the race.
It makes you want to say that everything is going according to (his) plans.
"Maverick and Fabio had already shown to be the fastest in the winter tests, and that's how it was here too," Marc continued. "I'm still missing something on the flying lap. We have to study a bit but, in the FP4, I had a really good pace, and I'll be able to battle it out with them. My shoulder is fine too, I can rider normally."
Finally, Marquez explains the involuntary slowdown against Rins in the FP3, for which he was not penalized.
“I didn't see Alex ," he said. "At Turn 2, the commissioners were waving the double yellow flag, because some of them were in the ride-off area along with a rider that had fallen. When there's that warning, you have to slow down, and I didn't expect anyone to keep pushing, so I didn't turn around as usual to check if someone was there."
