Marc Marquez save: “With Ducati, the best one"

Marc Marquez rolled back the years by pulling off a huge 65-degree front end save during Friday afternoon practice for the Indonesian MotoGP.

The Spaniard lifted his Gresini machine back upright with his knee and elbow, just as he had done many times during his Repsol Honda career.

However, this was the first time he had made such an extreme save on a Ducati.

“With Ducati, the best one,” Marquez grinned “The best one, and the only one at the moment.

“Sometimes I’ve had a small save, but it’s been a long time since one of those big ones.”

Marquez added: “When the grip is not perfect, you have more chance to have this kind of save. In Misano for example, we had many crashes because the track was much more grippy than here. So when you lose the front, it’s gone. 

“Here you have more margin. But now the track will get better and better and there will be less and less feedback to do these kinds of saves.”

After dominating the low-grip Aragon weekend, Marquez had been tipped to shine on the dusty opening day in Mandalika.

However, he had to settle for sixth and seventh places respectively during the practice sessions.

“It was super nice feeling when I saved it, but also, as I said in the past: The save is good for the show, but it means I don't feel comfortable and we need to keep improving,” Marquez confirmed.

“I hoped to feel good from the beginning, but I had a question mark because I’ve always struggled a lot at this track.

“And in fact, I struggled a lot in FP1. Then in FP2, I did the improvement from my myself, but also the bike. But still for tomorrow, I need to improve a bit in Sector 2, which is where I'm struggling most.”

The eight-time world champion had also hoped that a return of the stiffer construction rear tyre would mean a repeat of his searing Red Bull Ring pace.

“One of the problems for me this year is the pushing from the rear [tyre] to the front,” he said. “Then I have a late turn, a late pick up [on corner exit] and it's all a consequence.

“In Red Bull Ring I felt better and better, but today again here I'm struggling a bit, especially with the new tyre.

“With the used tyre I feel not bad, but with the new tyre I was struggling a lot on the time attack to understand because that pushing [from the rear] to the front was even worse.”

However, even on the used medium rear tyre it looks like Marquez has work to do.

While Enea Bastianini and Jorge Martin both set mid-1 m 30s on old mediums this afternoon, Marquez managed a low 1m 31.2 with Francesco Bagnaia a best of 1m 31.4.