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MotoGP Austria: Tomorrow we will try to fight in 'Ducati land' – Marquez

MotoGP pole sitter Marc Marquez has said he will try and fight in ‘Ducati Land’ tomorrow, ahead of tomorrow race at the Red Bull Ring, which will see him, start alongside the two factory Ducatis.

The factory Ducatis of Andrea Dovizioso and Jorge Lorenzo lead Friday’s only dry session and looked on ready to fight for the pole position. Unfortunately for them Marquez had other ideas in qualifying and in typically spectacular Marquez style, the World Champion ended up taking the pole from Dovizioso by less than a tenth of a second.

Despite starting from the pole position, Marquez is fully aware that he will have a battle on his hands and hopes he can fight with the two Desmosedici’s, who have won both races held at the circuit since its return in 2016.

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“Of course I am happy because during all weekend,” said the World Championship leader.

“I felt good with the bike even in FP1. We did in the last run a change on the bike that helps me a lot. Since then, difficult to understand where because the track conditions have been wet and I felt okay. Then the first time we came back on dry session was FP4, the pace was good with the used tyres.

“Then in qualifying was difficult to make the perfect lap because we didn’t ride a lot [in the dry]. Then when we put in new tyres the brake point, the speed change a little bit. Then like this we did a great session. I did a few laps in a row so this is the most important.

“Tomorrow we will try to fight in Ducati land. We will try to be competitive and try to fight against them.”

When asked what he changed after FP1, Marquez remained coy but did reveal it was something that they tested during last weeks post-race test in Brno.

“I cannot say what we tried in the long run, but it was one of the new things that we had in Brno,” he said.

“We start with our current base like we use all the year, but then on the long run we introduce something that we try in Brno and it was working well, and here it’s working good too, so this is positive. “

Over the course of 2018 Marquez has changed his approach to free practice, opting for a more progressive and thorough working through a schedule, rather than worrying about single lap pace. However, the weather conditions for this weekend made it tough for him to go through his whole schedule and work out what tyres will be the best for the race.

“Of course warm up will be important, to understand well the tyres, to understand how to make the last modifications,” Marquez said.

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“Basically to chose the correct tyre for the race distance, because honestly speaking the two tyres I tried, the soft and the medium, I feel well with both.

“But maybe tomorrow if we have enough temperature we can try the hard one but depends how we can check. We will check deeply the data and then try to decide the best option for us.

“I was fast even with 25 laps I was able to ride 24 and a half with a good pace, same with the medium too. If we have a chance tomorrow we will try the hard rear to understand a little bit more, but it’s difficult because tomorrow maybe the sunshine comes and the temperature will be high.

“But the front tyre more or less is clear. If the temperature doesn’t change a lot, I will go with the medium. I mean with the hard, maybe I can be slightly faster but it’s more dangerous. Now is not the time to take the risk in dangerous situations. I prefer to be slightly slower but safer.”

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