Marc Márquez concluded his track preparation for his first MotoGP season with Gresini aboard a Ducati yesterday in Losail. The Spaniard set the fourth-best time on the final day of testing, being 0.383s slower than the leader, Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati).
The six-time world champion in the premier class began by commenting to the press: ‘It’s no secret: during all the pre-season I was super calm because I knew: step-by-step, no panic, just… sometimes I was super far, but trying to understand all the steps I do because it’s a new bike and it was important’.
According to Márquez, on this last day of preseason, he took more risks, although he admits that at this point there are still stronger riders: ‘It was the day to do another step, to increase the risk, and is there was where I did it. Especially in the time attack I was closer, in the long run I was pushing quite well – it’s true there are not lap times there because there was a problem with my transponder. I also had the first crash, but it’s normal, because I increased that risk on the bike. Apart of that I’m happy. There are still three/four/five riders faster than us – especially [Francesco] Bagnaia, [Jorge] Martín, [Enea] Bastianini are faster than us. But let’s see; I was closer than in Malaysia, so step-by-step we need to understand the way to learn from them’.
Only at the Qatar GP will #93 be competing directly with other bikes aboard his Ducati for the first time, and he admitted that there is still much to learn at this stage, and mistakes will be normal: ‘This is another point, it will be another lesson: to understand how to ride behind the others, understand how to overtake. Still sometimes I forget to disengage the [ride height] device because is working differently and in the long run when I was thinking to change the maps then I forgot to disengage the device. I will still make some mistakes in the races because it’s part of the process. But I need to be calm and just follow what I did this pre-season. There will be races that I will suffer a lot. But if it’s time to suffer, it’s time to suffer. What I want to do is try to enjoy. There will be days that will be more difficult, but let’s see. There are still a lot of things to learn’.