Marc Marquez: “Super good day,” Qatar “against my riding style”

Marc Marquez insisted he was "very happy" after finishing third during Friday practice in Qatar, at a Lusail circuit that has traditionally been one of his weakest on the MotoGP calendar.

Marquez, whose costly crash in Austin handed the world championship initiative to younger brother Alex, ended the opening day just 0.167s behind surprise pacesetter Franco Morbidelli.

Marquez’s Ducati Lenovo team-mate and COTA winner Francesco Bagnaia split the pair, while Alex completed an all-Ducati top five.

“Super good day, for Qatar,” Marc Marquez told MotoGP.com. “I'm very, very happy, especially because I expected to be further from Pecco and Alex. Because normally they are very fast here and it's one of the circuits that I struggle.

“But I started in a good way. Even with the used tyres I feel better than with new tyres. I'm riding alone, I'm just trying different riding styles at a circuit that is against my riding style, so I need to adapt a bit."

Marquez - whose only previous Qatar win was back in 2014 - explained that the flowing Lusail layout clashes with his aggressive riding style, which relies on late braking and corner entry.

“Normally I'm a rider that attacks on the brakes and attack the corner entry and this circuit is a lot of long corners, so then you cannot attack a lot on the corner entry,” he said.

While Marquez’s factory Ducati win streak was broken at COTA, he will be fighting to make it a perfect four pole positions in a row on Saturday afternoon.

“Qualifying will be super important,” he said. “Because if I start in front - we need to understand how the others improve - but at the moment the race pace is good. 

"But it's true that from one day to the other, the track changes a lot here, so we need to keep going.”

After one daylight and one night-time session on Friday, final practice and qualifying will be in the sunshine on Saturday before a Sprint race under the floodlights.

Alex takes a slender one-point title lead over Marc into the Sprint, with Bagnaia a further eleven points behind.