Marquez feeling positive with decision to use 2014 chassis

Marc Marquez crashed on his outlap of the opening practice session at Assen but the double MotoGP champion bounced back to finish the day second fastest. Marquez is using the 2014 chassis this weekend and with changeable conditions expected he decided not to evaluate if the older chassis is an improvement on the 2015 frame and instead he’ll focus on the older chassis with some 2015 parts.

Speaking after the session Marquez assessed his day and the feeling that he has with the older chassis:

“Today was good and I’m happy because I think we did a normal free practice,” said Marquez. “We worked with the used tyre for the race and for the set-up of the bike. It was a long time ago when we worked like this. Also we kept the same tyres for the session to work for the race and it was good. On the rear I feel good but still we need to improve but I am happy because here I expect that Yamaha will be really strong and at the moment me and Dani are close and that is the most important thing for the team.

“I used the 2014 chassis for all the sessions plus the new swingarm that I have used from Le Mans. It looks like it is working well and also I have a good feeling with the bike but still in some points I think we are able to improve. We would like to make another [chassis] comparison here but here we thought it was not a good idea because always have the conditions and if tomorrow it rains then we lose time. We will try on some tests but here we will use only 2014. It is more the entry in the corner where I complain all year.

“Still the character is there but especially I am able to be more constant on the race pace and that is important. The other one was very good to make one lap but then for the race with this one I can make more mistakes and try to change the line and I am able to avoid big mistakes. The other chassis was more precise and had good points but it was difficult to be like a qualifying practice all during one race.”

When asked about his crash in FP1, which seemed to occur due to a cold tyre, Marquez explained what happened.

“It was really strange and I didn’t understand. It was the first lap and maybe I was off the line and the track was dirty or maybe it was the cold tyre. In the end I went straight to the garage and it was ok. It was much slower because it was the first lap but it was strange and also scary and it was a wake-up.”