Marc Marquez: “The time attack was good, but it remains my most difficult point” | FP

Last step before the start of the world championship

The first appointment with the MotoGP world championship is now upon us: this can be said especially after the official conclusion of pre-season testing performed Monday and Tuesday in Losail, IN Qatar, on the same track where the first weekend of this season will take place from 8 to 10 March. An event he will see for the first time Marc Marquez engaged in a championship away from the official Honda to start a new adventure with the Ducati of Team Gresini.

First fall

Riding the Desmosedici GP23, the eight-time world champion was able to gain further confidence with the bike, finishing in fourth position with his personal best time. 1:51.335, almost 4 tenths from Bagnaia (on Day 1, which ended in 7th place, the gap was half a second). However, a day that was not perfect for the Spaniard, struggling with a technical problem and, above all, the protagonist of one fall on a curve 4but without serious consequences:

“Here from the beginning I felt more comfortable with the bike, I was able to start playing with my body and this is already an improvement – has explained – the instinct is still devoted to another type of motorbike, but little by little we are working on the instinct and changing my riding style. In the time attack we went well, even if it is still the most difficult point for me. On the race pace we improvedwe tried a lot and pushed ourselves to the limit and found mine too first fall. We are happy? Yes, even if we are still far from Bagnaia, Bastianini and Martin.”

More work on the race pace

The brother is more in difficulty Alex Marquez7th on Day 1 but slipped to 13th place on the second and last day with the weather of 1:51.944 after 62 laps completed and almost a second behind the reigning champion, thanks above all to the work on the race pace. However, there was no shortage of positive sensations, especially in comparison to the tests carried out in recent months: “Compared to November the feeling has improved a lotin the last race here we suffered a lot – he added – It must be said that the track at Losail changes radically between one run and another and it is not easy to build a path for improvement, but we are getting there step by step. We are preparing for the race so the lap time is less important. We tried a lot even though with yesterday's crash we lost a front tire which altered the program a bit. We reported a long run of 20 laps and we found the results some problems which we will have to analyze in these two weeks.”