Marc Marquez says he will go on the “attack” from Saturday onwards at the Japanese Grand Prix, admitting he faces a deficit to KTM rival Pedro Acosta.
A year after wrapping up his seventh MotoGP title at Motegi, the factory Ducati rider ended the opening day of running in third place, behind his younger brother Alex Marquez and Austrian GP winner Acosta.
Although the younger Marquez topped Practice with a record-breaking time of 1m42.811s, Acosta also looked strong on the KTM RC16, finishing just 0.076s off the top in second.
Speaking after the session, Marc Marquez admitted he needs to pick up his pace in the remainder of the weekend, predicting Acosta as the rider to be beat in Japan.
“You manage yourself on Fridays; but from Saturday onwards, you have to go all out, because the others are very fast,” he said.
“At the moment, Pedro is the fastest one on the race pace and also on the time attack compared to me.
“Alex did a very good time attack with the soft rear tyre. I struggled a bit more with the medium but yeah, it looks like the ones who used the soft were very fast.
“So, tomorrow, I need to try the soft tyre well on the time attack. [Marco] Bezzecchi, [Ai] Ogura and [Jorge] Martin were there all the time, and it is the same as always.”
Marc Marquez, Ducati Team
Photo by: Gold and Goose Photography / LAT Images / via Getty Images
Marquez has changed his strategy at the start of MotoGP’s Asian tour, with the title fight with Aprilia duo Bezzecchi and Martin set to go down to the wire.
Having previously been willing to take a more measured approach on tracks where he considered himself to be weaker than his rivals, he has now vowed to go on the offensive until the end of the season, especially with KTM disrupting the duopoly between Ducati and Aprilia.
“We have to go on attack at all the circuits,” he said. “In the remaining seven, we have to attack, especially on Saturdays and Sundays. Obviously, when you attack, there is more risk. But the bar is going up.”
Friday pacesetter Alex Marquez said his elder brother Marc looked strong in race trim, particularly while running the more durable tyre in the middle of practice.
“I was feeling good on the time attack and on race pace. For sure, we need to improve, because Marc was super fast with a medium rear on race pace. But we are not bad, and we need to keep pushing and keep going, because starting like this on the weekend is a good thing,” he explained.
“Pedro was more with the soft, Marc with the medium, so on Friday it is difficult to reach a conclusion. To have a conclusion, you have to have an idea of how the race will be.”
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