Jerez MotoGP poleman Fabio Quartararo is resigned to a battle with Marc Marquez tomorrow as he believes it will be impossible to escape the reigning world champion.

Although the Petronas Yamaha man scorched to a new outright lap record today at the Spanish track, his race pace is not quite as good as Marquez has achieved so far.

“Looking at the pace of Marc it will be difficult to escape, because he’s already faster than us,” said Quaetararo.

“I think the most important is to make a good start, good first laps, and then see how to manage the race.

“But to escape from Marc tomorrow will be so difficult because, on paper, he is faster.”

Even though Jerez does not have a massive straight, Quartararo has to content with a serious top speed deficit of five kilometries per hour.

“It’s difficult to plan because the top speed is not the best. So, we will try to make the group as small as possible, and then we will see what happens.”