Marc Marquez was pleased to have run the symmetric Michelin front tyre in Monday’s Catalunya test after struggling with the asymmetric option during the race weekend. The world champion crashed five times over the course of the Catalan GP event and felt the symmetric front offered him greater stability.
Marquez was three tenths clear of championship leader Maverick Vinales and hopes today’s performance will translate into the next Grand Prix at Assen.
“The test today was good enough, though we didn’t test anything new in particular on the bike. We did a lot of laps working a bit on the electronics and on my riding style, aiming to manage the tyres better. What finally made me very happy was the symmetric front tyre Michelin brought here, which is the same, or more similar to last year’s. I immediately felt great again, on the bike and with the front. Actually I did my fastest lap on that tyre, as it was more stable. I was smiling again, at least on this track. Hopefully we can continue on this path with the tyres.”
Repsol Honda team-mate Dani Pedrosa was fourth quickest as tested some new components but he found track conditions similarly tough to Sunday’s race.
“Today we had an important day as we tried a different fork, doing a lot of comparison tests. We also tried a few things on the setup, working on the bike’s geometry. The track wasn’t in the best condition, as the temperature was very high and the tyres were dropping quite fast, but overall now we have more info to keep working on. At the end of the day, the track improved a bit and we also tried a front Michelin tyre.”