Marc Marquez: “One of my best Fridays, but still a step behind”

Marc Marquez turned around a messy FP1 to enjoy one of his best Fridays of the MotoGP season in Austria.

The Gresini rider, who felt he has been playing catch-up during recent events, came into the Red Bull Ring again targeting a clean weekend.

18th on the morning timesheets didn’t look good but Marquez's lowly position didn't represent his speed, having 'lost' much faster laps, or feeling with the bike.

Marquez duly leapt up the timesheets to lead in the afternoon session, on his way to 4th place and direct Qualifying 2 access.

“In FP1, I was happy because the feeling was there. But there were many yellow flags, red flag, sometimes I touched the green in the run-off area and so most of the laps were cancelled,” Marquez told MotoGP.com

“But in the afternoon, we started in a good way and the most important thing is that I feel much more comfortable with the base at this circuit.

“That means step-by-step I get more and more confidence because the feeling with the bike was better.

“It looks like we are in the top four-top five [group] and now it will be important to be in the top six in qualifying.”

He confirmed: “This was one of the best Fridays of the season. It’s true that Sachsenring was good, but unfortunately in the afternoon I had the massive crash.

“But today was a very good Friday. I already said I needed to approach FP1 a little bit different because in the past I’ve had some crashes that I didn't understand.

“Today we approached in a different way and also the bike setup works better, so the team did a great job.

“It’s only Friday, but honestly speaking, I felt like I was two steps behind the others in the last races and now I'm one step behind.

“So we need to keep working on the small details, but the last step is the most difficult!”

Casting an eye over his rivals, Marquez said: “Especially Pecco was super fast. Martin also was very fast and Bastianini, he’s tenth but on race pace he was fast. Also Morbidelli, it looks like he’s riding in a good way.

“So let's see. We need to try to understand if we can fight with them tomorrow.”

Marquez heads into Saturday’s Sprint race fourth in the world championship, 13 points behind double Silverstone winner Bastianini.