Marquez ‘riding like I want’, but suffers with sand in his eye during FP2

In what was an opening day at the British MotoGP with ups and downs for Marc Marquez, it was one that saw the eight-time world champion impressively top FP1.

The Spaniard carried on his form from the Austrian MotoGP two weeks ago by immediately topping the times, however, it was by no means a smooth session as the Repsol Honda rider suffered a huge crash late on at turn two. 

The 28 year-old lost the front in unusual fashion on the approach (around 170mph) to the first of four quick changes of direction. 

It was a fall that sent Marquez barrel rolling through the grass and then back onto the circuit, while the RC213V was completely destroyed.  

While initially shaken from the crash, Marquez was able to bounce back in FP2 and finished an impressive P5 on combined times. 

Marquez was pleased with the opening day as it relates to his performance, even though a visit to the hospital was needed in order to remove sand from his eye.  

Marquez said: "Today I felt really good from the beginning. I already said yesterday that this week I feel good with energy and today I went out and felt very, very good on the bike and was riding like I want. 

"It’s true that unfortunately at the end of FP1 we had a big crash and I had some sand in my eye. This created 'crying' [eye watering] a lot during FP2 and it was difficult to concentrate well and to perform in the best way. 

"But even like this I did a good FP2, but after the FP2 I started to feel worse with the eye; the vision is okay, but there was some sand inside so I went to the hospital and they cleaned everything. 

"They said tomorrow should be okay, but this afternoon I need to take a rest and try to keep my eye closed. I’m happy because we started the Silverstone GP well and let’s see if we can continue this."