Marc Márquez appears to be in good form. On Friday, he was second in the Practice for the MotoGP San Marino GP, with the Gresini rider trailing leader Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati) by 0.185s – who knows the Misano circuit well.
The eight-time world champion noted that he started with good feelings, which was important for him: ‘For me the most important was to have the feeling from Austria, especially because in Austria there was a different case on the rear [tyre], and one of the problems I had this year was that rear push to the front. Here is the first time that we have the normal casing with a normal grip. But I felt good, the base set-up was working. It’s true that here everything is super equal, and I think Bagnaia and [Jorge] Martín will make a step tomorrow. But let’s see if we can be in top four’.
After the first day, Márquez feels he loses time in Sector 3 of the Misano circuit, but he recalled that the characteristics of this sector are not favorable due to one of his perennial weaknesses: ‘I’m slow in the Sector 3, that is right, right, right – no left corners. And I’m fast in the Sector 4 that is two left corners. These have always been my weak and strong point. I would like to say good on the right and not so good on the left, but it’s the opposite’.
With that said, the Spaniard is aware that it won’t be easy to improve: ‘I have to improve in Sector 3, especially at Turn 11, but it will be difficult for me. My target is try not to lose a lot there. We are losing in two other places, but there we will lose. So we have another strong points where we need to take the advantage of our riding style and our bike’.
According to Márquez, getting closer to or surpassing Bagnaia would not have been possible even without the yellow flag at the end: ‘The lap time, I did 1m31.0s with the first tyre, and 1m30.8s with the second one. But it’s true that with the first tyre I felt better. With the other one there was a traffic jam, but I was not able to slow down to be alone because there was very little time. But today Pecco was faster, for me the second place was the real one’.