Marc Marquez: "I attacked to get this time"

Seeing Marc Márquez push the competition back to half a second at the end of the first day of the Buriram tests must have given Ducati's opponents a few cold sweats! The Spanish rider set an impeccable time on the track that saw him win in 2019 what remains for the moment his last world champion title MotoGP. While the Borgo Panigale firm is in the process of deciding which engine to use for the next two seasons, Márquez has already carried out a qualifying lap simulation, on a track that will host the first Grand Prix of the season, on March 2.

"The time is not the most important thing, what matters is that the sensations are good when I am on the track", he explained to the official MotoGP website. "I attacked to get that time. To lead a day in MotoGP, you have to attack, I was in time attack mode. I attacked to better understand things, I was also testing the front tire compounds brought by Michelin because I was not sure of the best choice. It was very similar between the two, but we will see on Thursday if we can continue on the same momentum."

Marquez already at ease

While these words may reassure the rest of the paddock about the amount of fuel he took on during his stint that allowed him to set the fastest time, Marc Márquez admitted that he felt immediately at ease on his Demosedici GP25. And that can only be a signal sent before the start of a season where everyone expects him to find his best level again, and at least play a leading role in the fight for the title, after his three victories last season at Gresini, on a year-old machine.

“I already felt pretty good in Malaysia, especially the last afternoon. I started to find something that allowed me to ride better. Here, I started and I immediately felt very good with the base settings. We tried various things because we are still a factory team, and so we test the new developments on the bike. I came back to my base at the end of the day and the time arrived.”

It remains to be seen which engine Ducati will turn to for the coming season, and what improvements the number 93 can still seek before the first starts of the season, in just over two weeks...

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