There is no official press conference on Friday, but most MotoGP riders usually hold a private conference in their home, half of which is held in English, the other half in their language.
Before the Valentino Rossi conference, we were there, and we therefore offer you a translation of the entire words of the Spanish pilot…
Marc Marquez: “Honestly, the bike is exactly the same as in Barcelona, and as I think everyone knows, we changed small things on the chassis, but it's not a modification; it's just to have more room to play on the height of the center of gravity. We can change it more, but for the moment, we are using exactly the same bike as in Montmelo.
It's not an improvement, it's the same bike as at Montmelo but I feel that I lose less acceleration when exiting a corner on this circuit, but we're still losing too much at the moment, particularly at the exit of the last turn, turn #5, on the back straight. We lose too much and we try to settle.
In FP1 I lost a lot in acceleration but less in FP2, so we are losing in the same places as last year, but less, and we are trying to work to resolve that.
I use the same chassis. Maybe Dani. Dani uses the new chassis because he found positive points in it at Montmelo. I also found positive things but also negative ones. The positive is corner exits are slightly better, but entry is worse. So I decided not to use it and wait for another development.
The 2014 chassis is the one I came back to here for this race, and I still use it. It gives me a lot of confidence with the front tire, confidence but also alerts, which is important. When I tried the new chassis at Montmelo it was better in some parts, but in other parts, like corner entries, it was worse. We are trying to find the best compromise to adapt the rear part of the new chassis to the 2014 chassis, because it could be a good solution. »
Regarding the right exhaust…
“No, I tried it in Montmelo but I didn’t like it, so I’m not bothering with it anymore. In acceleration, we gain nothing, and in my opinion it was worse when entering a corner. I don't know about Dani. I didn't like it at Montmelo, I was slower and the top speed of the bike was the same. »
Concerning FP2 dominated by Iannone and Rossi…
“Our pace is good. I'm satisfied because, ok, for just one lap they were stronger and had a really good time, but if you look at the pace and the ideal time, I'm close to the top, so it's not isn't the main goal of Friday, but it means we're already there.
Of course we have to improve, and it will be very important to decide on the rear tire because I was fast with the Hard but also with the Soft, so we will check carefully.
I think that here, throughout the weekend, my main opponent will be Valentino. Iannone had the best lap but he will start last in the race, and for the championship the important guys are Rossi and Lorenzo. »
The last quibble...
“(Laughs)… At the moment we are far from thinking about that, because last year I probably felt a little more comfortable on the bike, while this year I still think we have need to improve to get to the last chicane. But it looks like it will also be tight and we'll see how we can manage that; every year is different and of course we will try to be focused throughout the race to try to get to that last corner fighting for victory, which would already be a great result. »
The fins…
“I tried the wings during the last run, but they were the same wings as in Jerez. No difference. I tried them to check because Cal tried them and thought they were a little better, but we have to analyze the data carefully because they are not perfect yet. »
Comments collected by Thomas Morsellino
