Marquez takes risks, falls twice: 'I want to see if I have this fire inside'

The Spaniard was fast from the start of morning practice on his way to second behind Fabio Quartararo in FP1, then was left just 0.173s from Luca Marini during the afternoon time attacks.

But Marquez was also clearly pushing the limits, suffering a fall in each session.

The first was a slow Turn 2 off in the morning, followed by a much faster lowside at Turn 1 in the afternoon.

• Valencia MotoGP, Ricardo Tormo - Free Practice (2) Results
• Valencia MotoGP, Ricardo Tormo - Free Practice (1) Results

“The grip level was good, especially coming from Malaysia that was very poor for us. And with a higher grip level our bike is working better. But even like this [better grip] today I had some problems and I didn't feel the way to push,” explained Marquez.

“But it's the last race, a Spanish GP and I decided to take risks today. I crashed two times and I will take risks tomorrow. Maybe I will crash again. And I will take risks on Sunday also because I want to finish in a good way.

“But in the end, I have what I have [with the bike] and I need to wait until Tuesday [test] to do, I hope, another step.”

Valencia is now the last chance for Honda to avoid becoming the only manufacturer not to win a MotoGP race during the 2022 season.

“I said to you yesterday, [our performance here] will be between Australia [2nd] and Malaysia [7th] and at the moment we are 4th," Marquez continued,

“We are there. I know that tomorrow with a single fast lap it will be difficult to [qualify] in the front two rows. Maybe the target is to be on the third row.

“But we will see. As I said, I will take a risk because I want to do something more on my side.

“During all the [previous] races I was fast but always trying to control everything. But at this race I want to see if I have this fire inside me. And I have.

“Today I showed to myself that if I want, I can push, but I have what I have [with the bike]. I can do what I can do and no more.”

Speaking with a croaky voice, Marquez explained: “I’m [feeling] destroyed!

“I [woke] up and I was sick. So I'm taking medicines and tomorrow I hope to feel better and Sunday better again. But you never know.”

But there was more positive news about the ever-improving condition of his right arm.

“I'm happy because the target of my comeback was to improve my right arm and we improved a lot.

"Today I rode in a normal way and it was long time since I rode in a normal way.

“So for that reason I pushed more and I crashed more. But I was riding very good.”

Despite missing six mid-season races following his latest round of arm surgery, Marquez is twelfth in the world championship and the top Honda rider.

The next best RCV on Friday was the LCR machine of younger brother Alex Marquez, in 17th.