After the four Hondas occupied the final four spots on the timesheets at the end of Friday’s running in Barcelona, Marquez offered a moment of relief as he managed to get into Q2.
The eight-time world champion shadowed KTM’s Jack Miller as a reference to produce a time good enough for second, though he later admitted that after that “real lap” he didn’t want to compete in Q2 as he knew 12th was all he could manage.
That proved to be the case, as he went seven tenths slower in Q2 than he managed in the first segment of qualifying, going from 1m39.070s to a 1m39.7s.
And after a fighting early few laps in the sprint in which he was as high as seventh, he faded to 11th and 11.8s off winner Aleix Espargaro.
Marquez felt like it was a “good day” which was “strange to say” for him given the results, and noted that moments like Q1 and the early laps of the sprint are “important” for his confidence to “show I’m still there”.
“In the end, in the race I finished on my position,” Marquez began.
“But it’s true that the real performance of the bike alone [on track] was able to do 1m39.7s, 1m39.6s, 1m39.8s.
“Like I did in Q2. In Q2 I tried to follow Pecco [Bagnaia] but after three corners I was alone, he was gone, so I did the lap alone.
Source: Autosport