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Marc Marquez reflected on a ‘difficult’ day for Honda riders at Catalunya in Barcelona after the Japanese manufacturer filled the bottom four places in Practice 1.
Marquez finished 19th on the factory Repsol Honda machine with LCR’s Takaaki Nakagami and Iker Lecuona – deputising for the injured Alex Rins – and Joan Mir on the second Repsol RCV in 20th, 21st and 22nd respectively.
Spaniard Marquez, who has been the subject of fevered speculation surrounding his future in 2024 as HRC’s struggles continued unabated, admitted he faced ‘many problems’ on day one at round 11 of the MotoGP World Championship.
“It was a difficult day, a hard day for all the riders, but we try to work, to keep going, and I tried a few things on the bike,” said Marquez, who was 1.5s off the pace of Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaro at the top of the times.
“I feel like I am riding in a good way but it is true that the performance is not there. I feel good on the bike, riding well, but for sure we have many problems.
“In the end I need to think about me and I feel good, so [I am] ready tomorrow to try some more things and try to understand for the future.”
Assessing his crash in FP1 in the morning, Marquez said the slip-off happened after he tested Honda’s new aero fairing back-to-back.
“In the morning I made the same mistake as in Austria when I was comparing the new parts, especially with aerodynamics the bike changes a lot,” said the 30-year-old.
“In the afternoon we worked on our base and our pace, I feel good but we are far from the top. Tomorrow the objective is to achieve our best and keep working.”
Japan’s Nakagami said he was left ‘shocked’ by his lack of competitiveness on Friday, when none of Honda’s riders got close to securing an automatic spot in Qualifying 2.
“To be honest I was a bit shocked,” said the satellite rider. “The first outing in this morning’s session, zero grip.
“The lap time didn’t come and I stayed on the track and tried to adapt myself on the riding, but the problem again is that we don’t have any rear grip.
“Especially in today’s conditions, not really good, and this afternoon’s session with hot conditions and Moto2 rubber on the track, it doesn’t help our situation; less grip than this morning, so we are struggling a lot.
“It’s really difficult because we don’t have any rear grip, no turning and no traction, so we have crazy spin,” added Nakagami.
“We understand the problems clearly but we don’t have the idea so solve the problems. We tried many things but no improvement.”
