Marc Márquez didn’t appear particularly worried despite a decidedly unusual day, where he came in only 22nd, and after a fall at that, which adds up to the one he had in Qatar during the warm up.
"The new, harder rear tire modifies the imprint area, which is now smaller, so the grip is also less. The race pace is good. I feel good. I expected worse. Of course, having a good pace is more difficult than in the tests, but we were there in the morning and, in the afternoon, we also mounted the soft tire. We’ll see if tomorrow we can improve and be faster."
The fall came just as Marc was about to get better.
"Yes, it was not the right time to fall, but when you push for a lap, that can happen. All in all, I'm happy, but I'm not with the fall, because we're out of the top ten, and that was the goal. The reason? I braked too much with the new rear tire pushing harder ... I came up a bit too fast. I said it right when I got back to the garage. The telemetry doesn’t lie, and there’s no need to lie. I came up too fast, and that's why I fell."
During the tests, you said that there was an area where you could make a difference, but by taking risks. Did you fall there?
"No, it is in the T2 that you can buy a lot of time if you take risks. Taking risks is not one of my strengths on this track, maybe it’s my weakness. In qualifying, the difference can be big if you do well but, during the race pace, the difference won’t be that big."
Honda and Marquez still don’t have clear ideas on the tires to choose for the race.
"The medium is an option for the race, but the question is whether the soft will also be an option for the race. We’ll try to figure it out tomorrow, but it’ll be between the medium and the soft."
Marc hasn’t hidden the fact that he still doesn’t have the confidence he wants on the front.
"I felt better when we changed the set-up by bringing the bike in my direction, especially in the FP2. Now my confidence with the front is better."
Problems during the fall? You were fast ...
“I felt better before the accident. We'll see how I get up tomorrow. Obviously, the fall also changes the plans a bit. I should try to enter the top ten in the FP3 in the morning. With the soft tire, I immediately found a good feeling, but I couldn’t finish the round, and this means that we’re far behind. In general, I’d say that the day went well. I’m happy with the good feelings, but we can’t be happy, because we’re far behind, and also because we couldn’t use the soft tire because of my mistake. We hope that tomorrow morning it’ll be dry, that it won’t rain tonight."