A bitter Friday
The first day of the Catalan Grand Prix didn’t start off badly Marc Marquez, given that he had finished FP1 in second place on used tires. However, when the stakes got higher – in the afternoon practice – Marquez was unable to secure a place in the top 10 and tomorrow will have to start on Saturday from Q1.
The Spaniard finished in twelfth position, 0.591 seconds behind leader Aleix Espargarò, missing direct Q2 by around a tenth. Little consolation for the Gresini team rider is the fact that one was seen clear distinction on the track between the Ducati GP24s (Bagnaia 4th, Martin 6th, Morbidelli 7th and Bastianini 8th) and the GP23s (Alex Marquez 11th, Marc Marquez 12th, Bezzecchi 15th and Di Giannantonio 17th).
Marquez’s words
“It was the day we expected, but wanted to avoid“, Marquez began in front of the journalists, commenting on his Friday. The six-time MotoGP world champion explained: “In the afternoon we suffered and were unable to achieve our goal of getting into Q2. We knew it would be difficult, we’ll put everything on the line in qualifying. We’ll see if we can get through Q1, it will be essential to make the most of the soft tyre. Qualifying in the top 3 would be a good goal.”.
Marquez made no excuses for the difference between the GP24 and GP23: “We understood that the GP24s were better in the long corners, but today there was a GP23 that went a little faster than me, my brother Alex. On other tracks with the GP23 I made more of a difference, while here we are more or less on par“. The Catalan then concluded: “I didn’t have the right balance on the bike and with the new tire this problem was accentuated”excluding team play with his brother in Q1: “One would be damaged. It will be difficult to pass both.”
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