Marc Marquez goes back to basics with 'Portimao' bike

Out went subsequent developments such as the Kalex chassis, shipped over to the LCR team, as the eight-time world champion returned to where he’d been at the end of winter testing - in search of a good base set-up.

“If you don’t have a solid base, you cannot think of the future. You can’t build a good future,” said the Repsol Honda rider, battered by injuries after trying to force speed from his RCV in the opening eight rounds.

“So the target for today was to ride smoothly and find confidence on the bike again. Try not to have any warnings or crashes.

“Of course, on the hot lap I pushed, but if you saw, I used only one tyre because I didn’t feel [ready] to push. If I don’t feel, I don’t want to push, like in a test.”

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The end result was 13th place for Marquez, although still top Honda, meaning a trip to Saturday’s Qualifying 1.

“I used three soft front tyres today. So tomorrow, if it’s not raining, then for qualifying I will only have a used front,” he added.

“But it’s no change to start 13th or 18th. My target now is to find that base. Let’s see if we have a solid weekend.

“Of course, I push and when you push there is a risk of crashing. But today I didn’t have any special warnings. So this is the most important.”

Marquez: “The problems were the same”

The Spaniard explained that the back-to-basics approach had been decided upon after studying the impact of new parts and set-ups introduced during the opening eight rounds.

“We analysed the first part of the season - we started with one bike, then changed the chassis etc, and the problems were the same,” he said.

“So today we were riding with the Portimao bike, exactly the same bike, just to understand where we are.

“Then if you can have a good base, when we will receive I hope in the future new items, you can try them well. If you don’t have the base, you can’t try well.

“This is the target. Then of course in the next races I will push and tomorrow I will push in qualifying and the Sprint race, but only in the moments where I need to. Not every time.”

Marquez, who fractured his thumb at Portimao and then suffered rib and ankle damage at Sachsenring, revealed he now has an issue with pain in his groin.

“I hoped not to show it, but you can see from my body language,” he said. “Yeah, on riding, I am not 100%, especially I have some pain in the right abductor which appeared in the past month.

“Maybe it came from the right ankle, that was not working well, maybe I was cycling in not a good way because it was painful. Then it started to appear more and more and more. There is a lot of pain. Last week we worked with the physio but it’s not enough. But we know what it is and it will improve.”

Team-mate Joan Mir, also returning from injuries this weekend, was 18th fastest.

Takaaki Nakagami ran a radical new Honda fairing, which he said delivers much more downforce but needs substantial set-up changes as a result.