The six-time MotoGP champion appeared to be off-colour at Silverstone on Friday, suffering a late crash in the morning session and then having to get a tow from Pramac’s Jorge Martin in order to secure a direct passage into the second part of qualifying.
While Ducati looked rapid at the 5.9km venue, with even VR46's Fabio di Giannantonio and Marco Bezzecchi finishing sixth and ninth on last year’s GP23, Marquez struggled in comparison on the same-spec bike and was classified a distant 10th in FP2.
The Spaniard set a rapid time in the first sector on a number of occasions but fell adrift of his rivals later in the lap as he struggled with corner entry and rear grip.
Explaining his struggles afterwards, Marquez conceded that he was “very far” from his rivals after the first day of running at Silverstone.
“The circuit is a long circuit with very fast corners and if you struggle a little bit, the difference at the end of the lap is a lot,” he said.
“We can say that from the first lap of FP1 that I started in the opposite way. On riding and feeling with the bike, everything was super difficult to understand.
“I tried to work on myself, the technicians tried to work on the set-up and in the afternoon [it felt better], but still we are very far.”
Unlike some other race weekends of the season so far, Marquez was able to gain a direct spot into Q2, as he narrowly beat the Pramac Ducati of Franco Morbidelli to 10th place in FP2.
He described that as “the only positive thing of today” before adding that he and Gresini have a lot of work to do overnight to close the gap to the opposition.
“Today was not a good day, I'm not happy,” he said. “The only positive [thing] is we are in the top 10, but apart from that the feeling was terrible.
“I need to work on myself and we need to understand how to find a better feeling with the bike and especially [improve] the lap time.”
Although it was only practice, Marquez tucked himself behind the faster GP24 of Martin in the final minutes of the session, hoping to gain a tow from him.
The strategy worked wonders and allowed him to post a time of 1m58.585s, while Martin went on to top the session ahead of Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaro.
Marquez felt that he was left with no choice but to follow another rider after “feeling lost” on his bike in both sessions.
“Today was the first day to follow somebody because today I felt I was lost,” he lamented.
“In other race tracks, I feel like, ‘okay I'm feeling good and I can do it alone’ - and I feel better alone. But today I was lost.
“When somebody is lost and they have the capacity to do it, they do [it].
“And today I went out behind Aleix [Espargaro] from the pits but Aleix didn't push. Of course, I said I will not push too.
“Then Martin arrived and that is where I followed Martin. But my initial plan was to follow Aleix.”
