MotoGP Austria, Day 1: Marquez, “I decided to focus on the pace for Sunday”

GP Austria Red Bull Ring MotoGP Honda Repsol – The first day of free practice on the Spielberg circuit for Marc Marquez was not brilliant. The Honda rider finished seventh in the combined time classification.

The current world championship leader, however, preferred to concentrate on the race pace for Sunday, without fitting new tires to try for a good time, risking not entering the top ten.

Compared to last year the bike and the feeling have improved, especially in acceleration, but there is still work to do.

These are the words of Marc Marquez: “We are satisfied with how today went. We started the weekend with a completely different setup to last year and it worked quite well. We have definitely made a step forward with the acceleration and the general settings of the bike. Of course we have to wait and see how tomorrow goes, as we have some details we still need to work on. The others will also improve, but so far we are happy with what we have done and with our race pace. At the end of FP2 I decided to continue with a used medium rear tire to focus on preparing the pace for Sunday. The weather forecast predicts possible rainy conditions for tomorrow morning, but I decided to take that risk because I wanted to prepare well for Sunday's race.".