Dovizioso the rider to beat at Brno, reckons Marquez
MotoGP points leader Marc Marquez reckons Andrea Dovizioso is the fastest rider in reality after the opening day of practice for the Czech Grand Prix at Brno.
Dovizioso beat Marquez to top Friday morning's first practice session, but was only fourth in FP2, which was headed by Petronas Yamaha rider Fabio Quartararo.
Several riders reported high tyre drop at the Czech venue, and Marquez reckons it is Dovizioso who can keep his pace strongest over a race distance the best.
"It's true that today the difference was very big, if we compare in the last races," said Marquez. "Here, it's first five laps is one pace, then the next 15 laps on the race is another pace.
"At the moment the fastest one is Dovi, for me. He's the one that, he can keep better the pace, and even last year he did a very great race.
"So yeah, we can understand the fastest lap, and of course the people check the final result, that means the fastest lap.
"The most important is check the papers, and there the pace of Dovi is one of the fastest ones."
Marquez still wary of committing to new chassis
Marquez continued to compare Honda's new carbon-reinforced chassis to his old one at Brno, setting his best time of the day on the former.
However he is wary of using it in the race as he doesn't have enough experience with it yet, and the old chassis has proven to be competitive.
"Today I tried both chassis in FP1 and again in FP2, because tomorrow looks like the weather is not so good, looks like will be half-half, some storms, and it's important to have two exactly same bikes, exactly same chassis," said Marquez.
"I did the fastest lap with the new one, but the old one is the old one, I know everything about that chassis, I know the reactions of that chassis.
"Now the engineers try to analyse all the things, the pace with both chassis was very very similar, but with the old one it's there, with the new one still we need to work.
"And looks like tomorrow the weather will be not so good - still it's not decided yet, but we have a Monday test, so maybe we'll retry again on Monday.
"If you are coming with a not so good situation then it's easier to choose the new chassis - but if you're coming with a good feeling, if you're coming after winning races, after being constant in all the race tracks, then it's more difficult to make the decision."
Additional reporting by Oriol Puigdemont
Marc Marquez, Repsol Honda Team
Photo by: Gold and Goose / LAT Images
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About this article
| Series | MotoGP |
| Event | Czech GP |
| Sub-event | FP2 |
| Drivers | Andrea Dovizioso , Marc Marquez |
| Teams | Ducati Team , Repsol Honda Team |
| Author | David Gruz |
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