Reigning MotoGP World Champion Marc Marquez doesn’t believe he has the pace to win tomorrow’s Sepang MotoGP and lift a fourth title after a dramatic Saturday which saw him only scrape into qualfying two, crash and finish seventh.
Marquez only just made it into qualifying two by right, finishing free practice three in ninth, and then crashed on his first flying lap after a near-miss in FP4. The Spaniard, who can usually be fast on both his bikes, said the feeling on the number two RC213V was not the same and that pretty much ended his challenge for pole.
“Sepang is not one of the best tracks but it is true also that today everything was wrong. This morning we made a small mistake with the setup and lost the direction a little bit,” said Marquez, speaking at the track.
“In FP4 I started to feel again the feeling with the bike, but the thing is when I went out in Q2, I went out with that bike, I crashed with the first tyre. Then I think with the other bike the feeling was not the same, also I did a not do a good lap, and for that reason we are seventh.
“Honestly speaking we don’t have the rhythm to win the race at the moment but we have the rhythm I think to fight for the podium. Looks like at the moment Dani and Dovi have the best rhythm and then I am among a few riders that we can fight for the podium.”
