Marc Márquez's MotoGP debut at Cheste: statements and gallery

Yesterday saw one of the most anticipated moments for MotoGP World Championship fans: the debut of Marc Márquez on what will be his bike for next season, the RC213V Honda, a marvellous machine that has seen Dani Pedrosa finish the season spectacularly. So the feeling with this MotoGP is good, although there is still a lot of work to do, especially for the 93, who has to adapt to it, to the braking and to the racing line of the premier class.

After seeing that on Monday Márquez did not go out on track, and that the weather conditions did not seem to improve for Wednesday, many people already considered Marc’s MotoGP debut at the Valencia Circuit postponed. But finally we saw the 93 put on his suit, and his bike and Dani’s were brought out to warm up in the pit lane. At that moment, with the track wet but without rain, we saw the moment when the Moto2 World Champion went out onto the circuit.

The first session consisted of seven laps, with a 1.44 on the first lap and getting faster with each lap. So Márquez evolved quickly, closing that first series with a 1.35.846 and returning to the track to keep working, completing more than 20 laps of the Valencia circuit and setting a time of 1.33.403. That made him the seventh fastest of the day, just over 1.081s behind the first classified, his teammate Pedrosa.

Now the Repsol Honda team has different plans for each of its riders: Pedrosa will take a break with the Honda until February at the Sepang Circuit, while Márquez will take the bike to the Malaysian track on 26, 27 and 28 November, where he will continue adapting to the category and to his new bike.

Statements by Marc Márquez:

I am very happy. We waited all day for the asphalt to dry so we could go out and test the bike, and the wait was long. I was starting to feel impatient and the track was drying, so finally I was able to go out and ride. At the beginning it was quite difficult, but at the same time it was very beautiful to feel the power of the bike. The front wheel lifted many times on the straights, but little by little I gained confidence with each run on track and rode faster and faster each time.

I have tried to adapt my Moto2 riding style to this bike, because there are big differences. There are many things to improve and test; the front tyre behaves very differently, but the most important thing now is that we have had a good start and I have very good feelings with the team.

Source | Repsol Media Service