Alex Marquez surprised by pace as he’s cleared to…

Alex Marquez says he is surprised by his own performance at MotoGP’s German GP, where he breezed into Q2 despite carrying an injury on his left hand.

Passed fit following Free Practice 1 in the morning, Alex was second-fastest in Practice, thus booking his ticket into final qualifying on Saturday.

Asked at the end of the day whether he had expected to feature so high on the timesheets, the Gresini Ducati rider replied: “No. I mean, you always have the feeling or [say to yourself], ‘OK, I can be fast also like this [with an injury]’ – but not to be second and to be quite close to the top guys.”

The younger of the Marquez brothers, who lies second in the world championship, passed his first challenge of the weekend by completing a respectable 19 laps in Free Practice 1.

Following one of his early runs in the session, he received a visit from MotoGP medical director Dr Angel Charte in the Gresini garage. Marquez was subsequently declared fit to compete in the rest of the weekend.

Alex Marquez, Gresini Racing (Photo by: Alexander Trienitz)

While Marquez was only 14th-fastest in FP1, his work in the afternoon showed that his injury was not having a major impact on his pace. His time of 1m19.408s was good enough for second – and he was ahead of his brother Marc Marquez.

Marquez was a sizeable 0.337s off the pace set by VR46 rider Fabio di Giannantonio, but the Italian, along with his team-mate Franco Morbidelli, ran a fresh set of new soft tyres at the end of the session, clouding the picture somewhat.

While the pain on Friday was bearable, Marquez said it had affected his riding style.

“With the pain that I have… I’m not riding [with my natural flow]. Because I’m super stiff, you know? So, it’s something that I need to understand, I need to feel.

“When I try to ride in a flowing way, in my style, that is where I feel pain.”

Marquez registered 27 laps in the afternoon. Although there were breaks involved, that almost amounts to the 30 laps over which the German GP will be contested on Sunday. While that may be a good sign, Marquez says nothing about how the next two days will play out is certain.

“Injuries like this sometimes are getting better and better, or sometimes worse and worse. So, I have this doubt for tomorrow – we’ll see.

“When I wake up I will see how my hand is; whether there is more inflammation or not. And from that point I will try, session by session, to give 100%. And not think too far ahead.

“But I think with adrenaline… and all that, I will forget the [injury in the races].”