Marquez can leave the track Ricardo Tormo satisfied with his first performance in this Valencia Grand Prix. He certainly suffered the law of a found Lorenzo, but he also knew how to fool him. However, the World Champion of the year is dissatisfied with a Honda which spends too much time lifting its front wheel.
A behavior that costs time and a characteristic that the 23-year-old five-time winner would like to see removed for the next year. Because if the immediate challenge remains this Sunday's race, the work for 2017 has also begun: “ we are working on the engine to find more power that would allow us to overcome our shortcomings in straight line and acceleration » begins the teammate of a Pedrosa returned to his motorbike. “ But in addition to the engine, we also need to improve the balance. Our problem is that the bike pitches up too much. This is a concern that we already had in 2014 ».
Marquez insists: “ we have worked considerably on our electronics this year. At the moment we can't put all our power to the ground because the bike is pitching up. So we work on the electronics which compensate by playing on the power ". Like a vicious circle from which he would like to escape: “ we are missing something. We lose because of these “wheelies” not because of the lack of engine power. Which happens too suddenly ».
Despite everything, there are positive points: “ When entering a turn I feel good. Which is good because it was a problem until this mid-season. Now we have to work on the output of the curves. To achieve this we will work with the same chassis ».
This Friday was also dedicated to tires: “ we focused on the tires. In the morning, we took the tenders and the times were quite good. In the afternoon, I rode with the tough guys and we did a lot of laps to test the different carcasses of the front tire. I think we have made progress on the subject. I think that with Lorenzo, Rossi but also Viñales, we have the same level”.
Marc Márquez finished the first day of Valencia 0.247 sec behind the leader Jorge Lorenzo. Honda is the manufacturer that has distinguished itself the most in Valencia during the MotoGP era. The Japanese brand has eight victories, compared to four for Yamaha and only two for Ducati.
