MotoGP World Champion Marc Marquez avoided a disaster after taking ‘a big risk’ during free practice one in Misano.

The World Champion was languishing down in thirteenth and staring at the prospect of heading into Q1 with rain forecast for the afternoon session after testing and trying new parts for his Honda, trying to catch up after multiple teams tested around the Misano circuit before Silverstone.

Fortunately for Marquez the afternoon stayed fair and the Repsol Honda rider managed to improve up to fifth position after day one.

"This morning we took a big risk, but we had to do it because the other teams had done a test here, and had clearer ideas on how to work,” said the Spaniard.

“So at the end of the first session I made different choices and I wasn’t very fast, I also wanted to change the tyre in FP1, but I calculated the lap times badly during the lap and I lost the chance to come back for a ride with new tyres.”

Marquez was the second fastest Honda behind Cal Crutchlow in third position. Crutchlow was the only Honda rider on hand in Misano testing and despite gathering data for the factory during the test; Marquez said his data didn’t really help him.

"It didn’t help much because, for some reason, I and Cal use very different settings here,” he said.

“We have analysed the information gathered during the tests, but we have continued to work on our base.”

The Repsol Honda pit box has seen both Marquez and Pedrosa alternating between carbon and aluminium swingarms, when asked about them, Marquez said: "From Brno we been using the carbon swingarm, although in reality the potential is very similar between the two.

“It’s very difficult to spot the differences, it seems that the carbon has a slightly higher potential. The main reason we didn’t start the season with it is quantity. If you fall and break the carbon swingarm, it takes a long time to produce another one.”