Marc Márquez left behind a complicated first day of MotoGP testing in Sepang, completing 72 laps this Wednesday. Despite only achieving the 14th fastest time and not being satisfied with his fast laps, the Gresini rider feels he is making progress in adaptation.
The Spaniard mentioned that he was pleased with this day, although he admits that he still has many difficulties in achieving fast laps: ‘Today was much better than yesterday. Today I felt better, I was able to do more laps – maybe even too many, because 72 laps here in Malaysia may be too much; I don’t know how I will be tomorrow. But today I felt this way and even in the final part of the day, when I had a tire for the time attack, I decided to do ten laps – the Sprint race – because I felt it was necessary for me to understand this bike with consecutive laps. And indeed during the Sprint race, I started slower and then I was faster at the end. That means I was understanding the bike better lap by lap. I still have a lot of difficulties in the time attack – that’s where I struggle the most because it’s the hardest for a rider to understand how to attack when you only have two laps and then after two hours you have two more laps for the time attack. So, that’s where I still need to understand how to use the tire. Other than that, I’m happy with how the day went‘.
At this point, Márquez said that although he is not yet in perfect harmony with the bike, he continues to adapt and needs more mileage: ‘I’m still a bit stiff on the bike, but today I started to enjoy it a bit and that was the main reason for doing ten consecutive laps – to try to understand better. Because if you do a time attack, it’s only two laps and you don’t understand much. Right now, I need laps, laps. Maybe today I did too many because I will feel it tomorrow, but it’s okay‘.
On the other hand, #93 explained that the rear tire is used in a very different way in the case of Ducati and still has to eliminate the instinct to ride as if it were his old bike: ‘It is a completely different way of using the rear tire. That’s why I’m still riding the Ducati like the Honda. In Valencia it was good, but not here. And now I need to break the habit of 11 years with one bike. This is difficult. Especially when you’re in rhythm it’s easier because you have more time, but when you’re attacking the stopwatch you’re not thinking – you go by instinct. And if I ride by instinct, I ride like the Honda. But it’s not the best way to ride this bike. So, step by step, it’s a process‘.
As for the settings he is using on his Ducati Desmosedici GP23, Márquez stated: ‘I have been using a very standard setup from other Ducati riders because I don’t want to lose my way; I don’t want to switch to another setup. Because that was the setup I started with yesterday and today it was working better, which means I am understanding the bike better. And that’s where I still need to understand and how I am riding. We are trying some things. My technicians are also trying to understand my riding style. Today we made some big changes to the bike – some positive, some negative. But in the end, we are riding with a very standard setup‘.
