Marquez's unusual Ducati situation continuing at Le Mans
Friday MotoGP practice at the French Grand Prix has offered even more evidence of Marc Marquez's unusual new situation at Ducati - which shows little sign of changing.
Marquez was fourth-fastest of the six Ducatis on Friday at Le Mans, and among three of the six to miss the Q2 cut - along the out-of-sorts Franco Morbidelli and still-limited Fermin Aldeguer.
Ducatis in Friday practice
2 Fabio Di Giannantonio +0.010s
3 Pecco Bagnaia +0.138s
4 Alex Marquez +0.138s
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13 Marc Marquez +0.464s
18 Franco Morbidelli +0.763s
21 Fermin Aldeguer +1.527s
It means he will have to make his first Q1 appearance since Indonesia last year, the weekend in which he badly injured his shoulder in a crash with Marco Bezzecchi.
"Difficult day, already from the beginning," Marquez said of his Friday here. "It took time to get the feeling on the bike - then step by step I was working in the way I think is the best right now, we came back closer and closer, but it's true that in the time attack with the last tyre I was not in the best way, I was not able to finish a correct lap.
"The most important is that the bike is working well, and I'm feeling OK."
A last-second crash for team-mate Pecco Bagnaia scratched off Marquez's final push lap via yellow flags - but the lap was already looking marginal by that point.
He did have top-10 performance on the evidence of his best sectors through the session, but also clearly lacked something relative to his brother Alex, Bagnaia and particularly Di Giannantonio.
Asked by The Race whether Q2 was on without the yellows, Marquez said "you never know" but added: "The thing is that if you have speed and you are fast, the yellows don't matter, you will do one lap sooner or later. Still I don't have that speed. I was between that fifth and 10th [in performance], but couldn't finish the lap in a good way."
Marquez said his Friday continued the trend of him having stronger race pace than one-lap pace but also that he felt a lack of confidence in the front - "but I think it's more my riding style, I need to change some things".
A new Ducati hierarchy
The shoulder injury still cleary limits Marquez, but unlike his past injuries it has put him in a new position - of no longer being the clear benchmark among the riders on his spec of bike.
He was a clear Honda standout even after his career-changing 2020 arm injury, was the fastest of the year-old Ducati riders when he joined Ducati, and dominated the season last year once promoted to works-spec machinery.
That extra bit of performance safeguarded Ducati's dominance last year, even as its technical package seemed to slip back towards the pack (and eventually get overtaken by the Aprilia).
Now the balance of power between the two bikes isn't totally clear, though the Aprilia RS-GP has been consistently the better Sunday performer. Marquez's usual edge over his Ducati peers would be enough to offset that - but it hasn't been present.
It is telling that, after regularly topping opening practices last year on 'greener' tracks as he exploited his greater feel and confidence, he is yet to make the top three in the Friday morning session once this year.
"All this year I wasn't the fastest Ducati out there," Marquez mused. "Maybe in the first race, yes. But it looks like I am struggling more, more and more.
"And it's true that, comparing my laptimes - because more or less, if we want, we can have the same bike, I am riding much slower. So, it's something that I'm quiet [about], I need to work inside my garage and try to improve without doing any crazy things on the bike."
His weekend could turn around yet - the weather forecast suggests it will, with rain on the horizon for Saturday and more heavily for Sunday.
But most of the year will be in the dry. And if Marquez wants to defend his crown, he will need to re-assert himself over the other Ducatis before he can worry about the gap to the Aprilias.
