Marc Marquez has admitted that he wasn’t expecting to be so competitive through winter testing, giving him cause for optimism ahead of his MotoGP debut next weekend. The Moto2 champion has regularly featured at the top of the timesheets and dominated the private test in Austin and ended the Jerez test fifth despite unfavourable weather conditions.
The 20 year old didn’t think the last day was a total write-off despite the rain and feels well prepared for his first Grand Prix in the premier class on April 7th.
“It was dry and sunny this morning then at around 10.30 it began to rain quite heavily. We put in some laps to understand a few things in these conditions as we had some problems in the wet on the first day, so this was helpful as we found some answers. Everybody was waiting for the track to dry out and although it was a little cold, the last hour was good. It was useful to test some things and I feel much better than yesterday, we made some improvements, especially in our consistency and with electronics. Now I will try to relax and prepare myself for Qatar, this has been a positive winter testing – much better than I expected!”
Teammate Dani Pedrosa didn’t bother to go out though, taking the view that the risk involved was greater than the benefit of running.
“This morning was sunny but by the time we got to the track the clouds had started to arrive. I was discussing the programme for the day with my team and it started to rain. We decided that we had nothing new to test in these conditions – even if it started to dry up this afternoon, and we are happy with the machine. On top of that, I felt the pain in my neck again yesterday and would prefer to rest it in time for Qatar. We’ve done a lot of testing this winter and now we are ready to go racing, I can’t wait to start the season!”
