Marquez: We’re in a good place

Marc Marquez feels Honda is well placed going into the two-month winter break, after a positive two-day outing for the MotoGP factory at Jerez.

The reigning world champion was one of three Hondas that placed inside the top five, while he continued work assessing new engines, chassis and aerodynamics.

“About the second day, I'm very, very happy, because maybe it was one of the best days of the preseason, the way that we worked. In Valencia we also worked really good.

“Yesterday we worked well, but I wasn't ready in my physical condition, because I was sick. Today I felt better, so I was able to work in a better way. We tried a lot of things, we got a lot of information about everything, about electronics, chassis, engine, even the tyres.

“We concentrated all day on the medium rear, hard rear, that nobody used, just to understand and to prepare the next season. In the end it was a good day for us and happy for the way we are working.

“I think we are in a good place,” said the 25-year old. “The thing is that the preseason is still very long, and now it's time to get all the information and see how Honda, Yamaha, Ducati, Suzuki is able to improve to Malaysia.

“In two months they can work a lot, and it will be another step, so it's there that we need to be careful and be ready in case that the others improve. But it looks like Ducati is working in a good way too. Yamaha are struggling a bit more in the rhythm, but in one lap they are very fast.”

On Thursday’s workload, he commented, “Today we started to work more on the details, we started really good straight away in the morning. Then we started to try different tyres, the hard and medium rear, all the tyres, we spent some time trying to understand them, also for Michelin.

“Also we worked on many things on the bike. In some parts we lost the way, in some parts it was better, then just I went out, I put a soft tire on for the first time today, and then I did a good lap time that is important, but was not the main priority.

“But yeah, happy with the work we did, and now time to take a rest for the winter, and also analyze all the information.”

Pressed for where he hopes HRC makes further improvements before the first preseason test of 2019 at Sepang, he said, “Of course we improved on the engine area.

"We still need to improve more, because still in some areas I am struggling a little bit. But now we must understand how to improve the chassis, because still in some areas I'm missing the speed.

“We need to analyse, to understand how to improve, because it was one of the question marks of the problems all during the 2018 season, and also with this new bike, we had the same problem, because it's the same. Now it's time to analyze and try different things.”