MotoGP World Championship leader Marc Marquez has said that Andrea Dovizioso is the fastest man on track after the opening day of free practice in Brno.
The World Champion ended the day in tenth position. 0.659 seconds behind his teammate, Dani Pedrosa’s fastest lap time of the day, a 1’55.976. Marquez has adopted the Dovizioso strategy of patience and focus on race pace on a Friday in 2018 and despite the new tactic; the Spaniard said that he thinks Dovi is the fastest man on track.
“Of course, we did the test here a month ago, one month and a half. The base set up is working well, including the electronics,” said Marquez.
“But the track change a lot we were here it was 40 degrees and then 45 and it was easier and the lap times were faster. Everything was a little bit easier to find the best set up. But we worked in a good way and worked more on the race pace, like always try to understand the tyres and try to understand a few things, that we have there.
“On the last run I improved the pace and the rear was not bad so it is time to concentrate and try to analyse which points we can improve. At the moment I think the fastest guy on the track is Dovizioso but then it is Dani, me and two, three more riders with a very similar pace.”
Tyres have become a topic of conversation in 2018 and Marquez said that the compound of front Michelin that has been brought to the Czech Republic for this round is acceptable but a bit soft for his riding style.
“It’s very difficult. Especially because the front tyre is hard, but not very hard,” he said.
“Also for my riding style I am pushing a lot with the front and for me its soft, but its acceptable, I can manage more or less. It’s so critical because if you do a small mistake and you feel that both wheels are light and you have slow turning. So you need to adjust well the set up of the bike, this is what we will do tomorrow.
“We have one base set up and we were pushing a lot here on the test because it was colder. We need to understand and find the set up to be a little bit aggressive.”
Despite a 46 point lead, Marquez said he will continue to attack, calling the best way to defend, to attack.
“I will attack since I didn’t have more points and if it was closer in the championship,” he said. “There are still 10 races and the mentality is the same like before, I mean to attack, why attack? Because it is the best way to defend. This is my style and of course I will try to be on the same riding style and strategy. Tomorrow we will try to be closer but maybe Sunday I don’t know. Dovizioso, Lorenzo or another rider that is faster than us we need to be smart and take points. If you have the chance to attack you need to do it.”