Friday at Le Mans in MotoGP gave us many confirmations, but also many surprises. Among these is Marc Marquez, who had the worst Friday since he joined the Gresini team and was unable to reach direct Q2. On a day that is now crucial for the weekend, the eight-time world champion found it more difficult than expected also due to a fall and did not go beyond the 13th time, a position which relegates him to Q1.
Although the result was below expectations, the driver from Cervera was unfazed, aware of the fact that moments of difficulty would arrive sooner or later: “Unexpected, but I had already warned. There will come a day, a circuit, a Friday when it will happen and it was like this. It happened here at Le Mans. So now we have to react. In the afternoon I didn’t feel very good with the setup, with the riding style… A bit with everything. But we’ll try to react, we’ll go through Q1 which isn’t the best and I don’t like it very much, but tomorrow we’ll try to take a step forward.”
On the Friday morning of the French Grand Prix, the Gresini standard-bearer had not gone beyond ninth position but had shown an excellent pace, only a tenth slower than the star of the day Jorge Martin. However, not all that glitters is gold because even in terms of pace, Marquez doesn’t feel particularly satisfied: “Passing through to Q2? It is vital if you want to opt for something. By ‘something’ I mean being in the top five and you have to start from the front rows, otherwise forget about it. Now we need to work because if the sensations are like today I won’t have the pace. However, if they improve and we see that the bike accompanies us on the setup, it will improve. We need to see exactly what happened, we have the information from the other Ducatis and we will see where they are, so I will make the most of it. Tomorrow morning’s tests will be fundamental to see if I will have options for Q1 or not.”
Marc Marquez, Gresini Racing
Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
If in the morning it seemed that the situation was under control, in the afternoon it worsened: a fall at Turn 12 at the start of the session forced him to return to the pits and go out again with the second bike. In his search for the right lap, he ran into several yellow flags which prevented him from reaching direct Q2, thus remaining the penultimate of the Ducati riders (his brother Alex fared worse, only 19th).
“I expected the falls I had, except in Portimao, where I fell four times in one weekend,” explains the eight-time world champion. “Today was the first fall for going over the limit. The others were caused by other factors, such as water stains, the brake, the lowering… This was the first one at the limit. It was one of the sectors where I was struggling and the bike wasn’t turning. Ultimately, I decided I wanted to shoot it myself and here it is. They made the second bike similar to the first, but perhaps the direction taken this afternoon wasn’t good. So tomorrow we’ll go back a little and see if we can have the same sensations as in Jerez. I warn you that it will be difficult to get through Q1 tomorrow if the feeling is like today”, he continues, further lowering the expectations of a complicated weekend.
Only at the end of the afternoon session did he seem to raise his head again, having turned on a red helmet on his last useful lap. However, he aborted the attempt, remaining 13th: “On the previous lap I was also doing well, but I found a yellow flag. On the last lap I was going fast, but I made a mistake at the corner. My bike moved… It happens. But if you have the pace and go well, you have more margin. Except that I was quite tight, then the yellow flag, my mistake and I didn’t pass. But at the moment we need to improve because even in terms of pace we are not in a very good position.”
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