Marc Marquez showed ominous pace in today’s MotoGP free practice four at Jerez and admitted after qualifying he has found the RCV’s sweet spot again.

The reigning champion began the session with a hard front/soft rear combination that was already five laps old and went on to post ten laps in the 1’38s and two in the 1’37s. Only Maverick Vinales got into the 1’37s and posted seven 1’38s.

Fabio Quatararo’s single-lap pace in the session was some way of but he put in nine 1’38s, so it looks like a three-horse race but Marquez is very sure of himself.

“In FP4 the race pace was really good, the most difficult thing is to keep the rhythm and try to understand so the most important thing is to keep that race pace for a lot of laps,” he said.

“Tomorrow will be crucial, both Yamaha riders have a good pace too. We will have to understand where our level is and find the maximum.

“During pre-season I was on a different bike and you can see a different aerodynamic package but with the new rules we just understood it was not the moment to try new things and we come back and we have an evolution of the 2019 bike.

“During Wednesday and Friday the speed was there but the feeling was not there with the bike and that’s what I tried to find today. In FP4 I started to feel the sweet feeling to allow me to understand a better way the bike is asking to me to be fast.”