Marc Marquez fastest - but he explains why rivals will inevitably catch up

Marc Marquez is convinced the other Ducatis will catch up to him as the MotoGP Thailand Grand Prix goes on after topping Friday practice with a new lap record.

The Gresini rider led the way after second practice with a 1m29.165s on his GP25 to put him 0.110s clear of championship leader Jorge Martin in second.

Marquez comes to Thailand off the back of victory in Australia and having won three of the last six grands prix.

Over long run pace, Marquez believes Martin is faster than him, while Enea Bastianini’s quick start to the weekend means the Italian will be a factory in the victory fight too.

“Yeah, of course, happy because starting the weekend that way is always important,” he told the media, including Crash.net, on Friday.

“It’s true that the pace is good. It’s not the fastest one like in Australia.

“I think Martin is faster than us. Bastianini, when he’s fast on Friday, means he will be super-fast during all the weekend. But let’s see what we can do.”

When asked if the others will catch up, he added: “This will happen.

“Especially I have that potential, or that advantage, in those initial moments I am riding very good, very fast, but then I’m there.

“And the others step-by-step are coming. For example, Bastianini is completely different than me.

“He starts struggling a lot and then he comes back. Let’s see what we can do tomorrow.

“In the first part of the season I was always struggling on the Friday and then the way to improve during the weekend was a lot.

“Now on Friday I’m already with a good base, riding in a good way, so the way to improve is same.

“And tomorrow for me even it will be difficult to improve the lap time of the practice, because already it’s a lap record. If I can do again a 1m29.1s I will sign now.”

Looking to tomorrow’s running, Marquez hopes to find a bit more top speed from his GP23 as he is losing lap time on the long drags out of Turn 1 and Turn 3.

“What I would like to improve? Of course always you try to find the small things.

“But at the moment where I am struggling more, or where I’m losing more, is that T1 and T2.

“But it’s the big straights. Those big straights are where we are losing a little bit more. But tomorrow we will put in a fresh engine and let’s see if we can be a bit faster.”