MotoGP: Marquez: 'Too early to tell if new engine better'

Marc Marquez has said it is too early to tell whether Honda’s revised engine for 2017 has solved the issues they have had with aggressive power delivery over the last two seasons.

The 2016 World Champion spent the full day, with the exception of a handful of laps this morning to warm himself up, on the updated version of the bike and while his initial impressions are positive, he says there is still a lot of work to do before they can know if the machine is a step forward.   

“It seems that the power delivery is a little bit easier for riding but we need to adjust the electronics to the new engine,” he explained. “All the maps for things like engine braking are made for the 2016 engine so we need to re-adjust everything and we have a lot to do.”

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Speaking of his rivals’ pace, Marquez says he wasn’t surprised by how quick Vinales was out of the box but seemed impressed that Lorenzo was so quick on the Ducati so early on.

“I expected Maverick’s performance, the Yamaha has been working well and he is a fast rider, but Lorenzo was maybe the biggest surprise. People say the riding style of the bike is different for him and he might not adapt, I thought he would be fast but he was fast straight away! Also Iannone with the Suzuki, he took that and was also fast like he was at Ducati.”

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