The Gresini Ducati rider had a tough time during the afternoon practice session at Le Mans. He crashed and couldn’t keep up with the other riders.
During the session, he couldn’t complete his second-to-last lap because of a yellow flag. Then, on his last attempt, he made a mistake and ended up in 13th place.
Marquez said it was the first time he found Friday practice difficult since he started riding the Ducati. He said, “Other Fridays were quite easy, and my pace was good. But today, it was tough.”
He explained that his main problem was not feeling the rear of his bike. “I’m pushing too much on the front because I don’t feel the rear,” he said. “We need to understand how to feel better on the rear. This bike needs a lot of feeling from the rear. If not, you will struggle.”
Marquez crashed during the second practice session at Turn 12. He admitted it was his fault. “I was fighting against the bike, not riding smoothly,” he said. “We need to understand how to improve for tomorrow.”
In the morning practice, Marquez tried a different setup that worked well. But after his struggles in the afternoon, he thinks they might need to go back to their usual settings for Saturday.
He said there wasn’t much difference between his two bikes after the crash. “This morning, I felt okay, but now we have some questions,” he said. “We need to figure out what to do tomorrow.”
Marquez dismissed the idea that rumors about his future were distracting him. “I’ve been in MotoGP for a long time,” he said. “I don’t feel pressure from rumors. This is just a tough Friday, and we need to figure out how to improve.”
