Marc Marquez “taking risks straight away” but “no useful information” for race

Marc Marquez says he was “taking risks straight away” to ensure a Q2 place in practice at the MotoGP Australian Grand Prix, but admits he’s gained “no useful information” for the race.

Only one session was run on Friday after poor weather forced FP1 to be cancelled.

This left the field with just an hour of running in the afternoon to begin understanding the new Phillip Island asphalt, though the constant threat of rain forced everyone to push for good lap times.

Marquez was fastest of all with a 1m27.770s as he led a Gresini 1-2 ahead of his brother Alex.

Commenting on his day, the eight-time world champion says he’s started with a good feeling on the anticlockwise Phillip Island layout but “there’s a few things to improve”.

“Yeah, I mean straight away I was taking risks on those first laps especially because it was super cloudy out there,” he said.

“Then I make sure that I was always on the top positions because we cannot forget that Practice gives the chance to be straight away in Q2.

“So, from that point we started in a good way. I feel good on the race track.

“Still, there’s a few things to improve. But as every Friday, now we need to work a bit more deeply because I know the others step-by-step will arrive.”

Michelin has brought three rear tyres for the Australian GP, with the medium and hard options featuring a stiffer casing to contend with the extreme thermal loads.

But the threat of rain through Practice means race running was at a premium and Marquez heads into Saturday without much knowledge of the tyres over a long distance.

“Of course, the approach was completely different,” he added.

“Normally you work there for the race distance. Today, we tried to work for the race distance.

“But we were pushing all the laps to make sure you were there on the top positions, and then the time attack.

“So, not a lot of useful information. But tomorrow we will have another chance to understand the rear tyre.

“At the moment, for 15 laps it’s [the tyres] working well. But the race is 30 or 29 more or less. So, let’s see if tomorrow we can ride more time on dry conditions and keep going.”

Having crashed out in Q2 sessions in three of the last four grands prix, Marquez unsurprisingly has put emphasis on qualifying on Saturday when asked to predict where he is currently in the pecking order.

“I mean, of course it’s one of the tracks that I like, one of the tracks that historically I feel better at than the others,” he said.

“But, today we started in a good way but tomorrow we have an important qualifying practice and we will see.

“That qualifying practice will give us the answer to what we can do in the sprint and on Sunday.”