Marc Márquez made a strong impression on the first day of the MotoGP French GP, topping both sessions and setting a new lap record at Le Mans.
The Ducati Lenovo rider split his day between two different versions of the Desmosedici GP25. Although they didn’t deliver radically different sensations, engineers believe the performance potential may vary. Márquez explained:
– I did the lap time with the bike from the Jerez test, and the feeling was very similar with both bikes – I was jumping from one bike to the other and the lap times were very similar. But this was the target of the change: not to change the feeling of the rider, but the engineers believe that with that change they can have more performance in the future. Why? I don’t know, but they said that to me. So, for the moment I’m trying because I have a good feeling with both bikes and I have the same feeling. So, this is the most important.
The eight-time world champion dismissed the idea that the newer bike gives him a different feeling: ‘No, I feel the same. I jump from one bike to the other and the lap time was a tenth faster or slower. But the feeling was very similar. At the Jerez test I felt a bit more of a difference, but here [I felt] zero [difference]’.