Marquez: Dovi will be very, very fast from the start

The second day of MotoGP testing in Qatar proved two things to reigning world champion Marc Marquez: Andrea Dovizioso will be one of his principle challengers from the very first race, and 2018 will be a season of “many ups and downs.”

After a strong opening day, Marquez repeatedly ran into front-end issues with his Honda RC213V on Friday. His times were never far away – he ended the day third, 0.167s off Andrea Iannone – but his pace was no match for ’17 title challenger Dovizioso, whose late run proved him to be in good shape.

Thus Marquez concluded the Italian will begin the season “in a good way,” but foresees a repeat of the year that just passed, whereby certain tracks will suit particular manufacturers more than others – a pattern that could change from race to race.

“If you check the lap times, he was very, very fast,” said Marquez, referencing Dovizioso’s performance on Friday. “Maybe he didn't push at 100%, but he was very consistent, riding in 1m 55s low easily, or at least many, many laps.

“At the moment, we are maybe six or seven tenths behind, so tomorrow the target is to try to be three or four tenths behind him. I know that it won't be the same pace, but we need to be closer.

“It looks like he will be very, very fast from the beginning, and already last year he was very fast. If he was fast from 2017, in 2018, he will start in a good way. But you already saw last year, there will be many ups and downs.

“We already saw this in the preseason: even on the same circuit, different days, different hours, there are many ups and downs between the manufacturers, and the key will be to try to be consistent and in the top five every race.”

Touching on his feelings through Friday, which featured another spectacular front end save as witnessed by Jack Miller, Marquez admitted it had not been straightforward.

“Today was a difficult day in one part of the day, because we started quite good, I started and immediately I was on a good lap time, consistent,” he said. “Then we started to try many things, and we lost our way a little bit. But sometimes it's important to try a few things.

“We tried the fairing also, and in the last part of the day, when the temperature started to drop, I was with the hard option in front, because on the right side it's much better, but I know that on the left side it's quite critical, and in the end I lost the front and I crashed.

“But it was positive, because I tried the second bike which was not on the initial plan, and I was even faster, and I was quite good. So we will see tomorrow, but it will be important to concentrate, to choose the best setup, and to work a little bit on the rhythm, because at the moment that's our weak point in this circuit.”

Marquez said he would use Saturday to work toward a suitable set-up for the race at this track on March, 18^th, and pointed to several names who he expects to challenge for honours at the first competitive outing of the year.

“The Suzukis [are strong],” he noted. “Especially Iannone. Both Suzuki riders but especially Iannone, his pace is also very very good, not only one lap. And then Zarco. Zarco today also. I didn't check well, but Zarco was also fast. So we will see.

“There is still one day left, many teams, and riders are trying different things. Tomorrow for sure that at 7pm there will be many long runs, riding and trying to understand, and then you will see which base and which pace.

“But still we have all of the race weekend to understand, and you know, when we are riding here with Moto2 riders, also the track is changing quite a lot.”