Marc Marquez (3rd) on Acosta: “At the moment, Pedro is the fastest!”

Marc Márquez was crowned MotoGP World Champion ahead of schedule at last year’s Japanese Grand Prix. Two second-place finishes were enough for the Ducati rider to secure that momentous triumph. Márquez got off to a good start to this year’s race weekend as well. He set the fastest time in FP1 on Friday morning, and in the afternoon’s qualifying session, the third-fastest time was enough to take him straight through to Q2 on Saturday.

“The feeling was good and the new tyre compound is working well too – the grip level is very high. That ensures balanced conditions,” said MM93 at the subsequent media session. “We need to keep working to better understand the behaviour of the rear tyre in particular. It looks as though the bike’s balance changes depending on the tyre.”

Marc Márquez: “Qualifying on Saturday will be difficult”

The time gaps were very narrow – 18 riders were within a second of each other. The lap record was one-tenth of a second slower than Pecco Bagnaia’s, set by the Ducati rider in 2025. Is there still room for improvement? “Saturday’s qualifying will be tough because everyone will be very fast,” the 33-year-old Spaniard is certain. “It looks as though you’ll have more than one chance, because the rear tyre performs very well over two or three laps – that’s why everyone is fast. Normally, when chasing lap times, the hardest part is putting in a single fast lap. Here, you have more time and more attempts.”

Based on what he saw on Friday – how does he rate the strength of his rivals? “At the moment, Pedro is the fastest – in terms of race pace and the time trial,” said Márquez about his team-mate for next year. Speaking about his brother Alex, who was fastest in qualifying, he said: “Alex had a very good qualifying session on the soft rear tyre. He struggled a bit more on the medium. It looks as though those who used the soft rear tyre were very fast. I’ll have to try that one out even more tomorrow. But you could see it in the qualifying session: Bezzecchi and Martin were right up there today – just as always.”

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03.10.2026 - 01:35