Marquez: 'All Honda riders are struggling with rear contact', only manages P14

Day-one of the Emilia-Romagna MotoGP proved to be a difficult one for Honda and eight-time world champion Marc Marquez as he missed out on the top ten.

While changeable conditions are usually a huge strength of his, the Repsol Honda rider was unable to find enough pace to make his way back up the order late on.

For much of the session Marquez was comfortably inside the top ten due to finishing FP1 second quickest in even worse conditions. 

But while most of the grid found pace inside the final ten minutes, Marquez was not one of them and will instead need a big FP3 performance to make his way directly through to Q2.

"It's true that normally on wet conditions we are quite strong, but for some reason in this racetrack – already in Misano 1 on Friday FP2 when it was wet, our level was not bad, but not as fast as the other tracks," said Marquez. 

"So for tomorrow, if those conditions continue then we need to understand why. It's true that our position is 14th in wet conditions. 

"The others are riding fast and the grip of the track is very high, and we need to understand, because all Honda riders are struggling in the same areas, in the same points, which are to try and believe in the rear contact, try to believe in the rear tyre, and it's there that we are losing more. 

"It's true that it was an important practice, because we don't know the forecast for tomorrow. I wasn't able to do a good lap time with less water on the track when the others did."

Marquez was, not for the first time this year, using practice to try out several chassis components, including the one that took him to victory in COTA. 

But with rain conditions always making it ‘difficult to understand’ which is best, it means tomorrow will likely be a more representative day to find the right direction for Marquez and Honda.  

Marquez said: "One of the mistakes in FP2 – it was not a mistake, it was the plan, but it was not going like we want, is because we tried both chassis again, one chassis that Pol is using, and the one that I used in Austin, for example. 

"So it's also in wet conditions, it's difficult to understand which one is better, because the track conditions are changing. Tomorrow it's time to decide which way to go. 

"It's true that it's not clear, but we did a test here and I finished with a chassis that Pol is using, so maybe I will go that way."