‘Struggling’ Marquez’s first actual backwards step at Ducati

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A “struggling” Marc Marquez has held his arms up and admitted that his woes on the primary day of MotoGP’s French Grand Prix weekend have been of his personal making.

On what quantities to his first actual day of difficulties since switching from Honda to a year-old, Gresini-run Ducati for 2024, Marquez fell within the first 10 minutes of the afternoon session at Le Mans and ended the day thirteenth – consigning him to a Q1 look on Saturday.

It is also one of many first instances he’s been conclusively outclassed on a Friday by his fellow year-old Ducati riders, with Fabio Di Giannantonio and Marco Bezzecchi each qualifying immediately for Q2.

“The primary Friday that was tough,” Marquez admitted after the session. “Different Fridays have been fairly simple, and the tempo was good; it was simple to be in Q2.

“However it’s true that it is the first Friday that we have struggled extra. It could possibly occur. So now it is time to react, and attempt to perceive what we did, the place I struggled extra on my driving fashion, and attempt to enhance for tomorrow.”

To date that battle appears to be coming from an issue in making his driving fashion work with the Ducati Desmosecidi across the Le Mans Bugatti circuit, the primary time Marquez has skilled that since his Ducati swap – and the primary time that he’s crashed as a result of he wasn’t feeling comfy on the bike.

“At the moment was the primary crash as a result of over-riding,” he defined. “I used to be combating towards the bike. I used to be not easy sufficient, I used to be not clear on the traces.

“And on that crash, I leaned an excessive amount of. I used to be struggling to maintain [in] the traces and I leaned an excessive amount of.

“I am struggling as a result of I am pushing an excessive amount of within the entrance – as a result of I do not really feel the rear. So we have to perceive find out how to really feel the rear higher.

“Ducati, particularly this bike, it’s good to really feel so much, or it’s good to take all of the potential from the rear. If not, you’ll battle, and it is what occurred right now.”

And whereas Marquez was fast to elucidate that his driving fashion had been the most important limitation, he additionally expressed his frustration that he hadn’t been capable of reap the benefits of two alternatives to progress to Q2.

The primary was taken away from him when Enea Bastianini crashed and introduced out a yellow flag, whereas on his closing try Marquez – who crossed the road with a second to spare – had been up on his earlier finest within the first sector however then made a small error on the method to La Chapelle.

“Yeah, as a result of I used to be struggling,” he admitted, when requested if he was driving offended. “I used to be not offended, however I used to be feeling that frustration on the final tyre.

“I did one lap simply to see [the pace], after which the subsequent lap there was a yellow flag, and [on] the final one I did a mistake.

“So I used to be offended about my mistake, as a result of I knew that was the final probability. And the 2 final laps that have been the nice ones for me and the tyre, I could not take the revenue.”

However there’s one good factor in his thoughts forward of Saturday’s qualifying and dash race: the actual fact he can now profit from Ducati’s wealth of knowledge from its different seven bikes to take a seat down and crunch some numbers with veteran crew chief Frankie Carchedi to attempt to discover a extra comfy answer.

“This can assist so much,” Marquez added when requested about Ducati’s different information. “We now have a variety of Ducatis quicker than us, so yeah – we have to perceive the place they’re, the place we’re, and attempt to discover the right stability for me, for my driving fashion.

“Possibly we have to go within the path of a few of them. We are going to analyse it.”