Reigning MotoGP World Champion Marc Marquez qualified off the front row for the first time this year but said he sacrificed his one-lap pace for a better race pace in tomorrow’s Misano Grand Prix.

The whole field have only had two sessions in the dry before qualifying, so Marquez tried to find a setting that would help him in the race. He is suffering from a lack of front grip but said his crew chief Santi Hernandez has some solutions to try in warm-up.

“The thing with the qualifying is that yesterday was a full rain day but today we are struggling to find the best setup. We used that 50 minutes for find the setup to try different things. I was pushing for one lap but I was more concentrate to find the setup,” said Marquez, speaking at Misano.

“It was my decision because I think is much more important the race. I sacrifice a little that qualifying practice for try to understand more things for tomorrow. Now it is time to try more things in the warm-up. We are one-tenth slower than Jorge but we are pretty close to Yamaha. We are second row but tomorrow we hope to be in front.

“The problem is in FP4 I start one run with one bike and second run with another bike. Then, in the qualifying practice, another bike and was difficult. I chose to try different things because I wasn’t comfortable and we get a lot of information. Santi has already said there is something and I believe in him.

“I miss a lot the front confidence. The problem is with the base that I have now is ok for one lap but for endurance I feel a little bit uncomfortable and I am looking more for the race, so I used FP4 to get information.”