The Marc Márquez He is always present at the Portuguese GP. First on the track in a day spent in water and smiling and confident in his appearance before the journalists, as before the injuries.
-How much does the rain help to preserve the physique?
-Well, it is clear that Austin is a very physical circuit and I arrived in poor conditions, without much training and, moreover, to prevent myself I was a bit without attacking, so as not to run out of energy on Sunday. Here I arrive much more prepared and I think I can now have a normal weekend. A day in the water is enough for you to test things, but on a physical level for all the riders in general it is less stressful and you are fresher throughout the weekend.
-Does it give you a rush to see yourself at the top of the time table, even if it’s only on Friday and in water?
-Obviously yes, it’s wet and it’s only Friday, but it’s much better to be on top than to be tenth or fifteenth, far from the lead. It’s water and if it were dry it would give more high, but being in water you understand that it’s important, you understand that you’re doing well, but your feet on the ground. To keep working, because you know that when the training sessions are dry, it will be there where the drum and the tree will move again, so that everything is put in its place again. This is where the Quartararo, Bastianini, Bagnaia and all the drivers who have been fast in these first races will start.
-How do you see your motorcycle in rainy conditions?
-Although at a speed level the other Honda was also fast, it was also less safe, and I think that this one in wet conditions is just as fast, but safer. The truth is that it has improved a lot. Confidence is much better in the rear and this has helped me. It can help to ride on water for the future, but each circuit is different, even from morning to afternoon the sensations are different. As a former pilot told me, in the water you go as fast as you can and you have to try to adapt to the conditions.
Does this mean that it is already there?
-Throughout the preseason and the first races, all the Honda riders have complained, some more and others less, about one type of problem, and when you arrive at a circuit that you are good at, things come out easy, the weak points are easier to identify and thus everything that had been confirmed from the first races is quickly identified. Some changes were made to improve in that direction and they helped, but it is true that you have to go with caution. We believe that a path has to be taken, at least on my part, but it has to be tested in other circuits, as it is here in Portimao, as it will be later in Jerez. Although here this weekend practically nothing will be tested in terms of set-up, but in Jerez, either in the Grand Prix or in the subsequent practices, we will continue in that direction to try to continue improving.
-Does the conditions this weekend complicate everything?
-Having a weekend like this makes everything much more unpredictable. Imagine that Sunday is directly in the dry and you don’t know exactly neither the tires nor the set-up and there you have to take the point of the luck factor into account, to have a good base set-up, to choose the tire well. Tomorrow is left to work and focus on at least being on those first two starting lines for Sunday, which I think would be a good goal and from then on we’ll see.
-Have you had to repeat an exit procedure during training?
-The exit that I have tried has been my fault, I have forgotten to put the ‘launch control’ (control of exit), my fault. (Smiles). Sometimes it happens that you put the ‘holeshot’, but you forget about the ‘launch control’, but then I put it.
-Have you had any problems like other riders with the brakes getting too cold?
-I haven’t had any problems with the brakes, but if you slow down a lap a lot there are problems, but if not, no.
-How did you see Pol today?
-Pol goes fast and he has already shown it during the preseason, during the first races, even in Argentina, that he has adapted very well to this new bike and he goes fast. This morning it cost him more but then, in the afternoon he went out and went fast. It’s good to have a teammate who’s also going fast so you can compare, but he’s one of the riders who on Sunday, be it dry or wet, is a candidate for the podium.