MotoGP title leader Marc Marquez led all the top five Ducati sweeps during wet Friday practice at COTA.
Ducati is once again a clear favourite, as other desmocecises from factory teammate Francesco Bagnaia are also in the top 10, claiming to have maintained “many margins” in dangerous conditions.
However, Marquez also identified KTM riders Pedro Acosta and Maverick Venares as potential threats.
Vinares won the then Acosta at COTA last season with Aprilia at Cota, enjoying his best session at RC16 in eighth place just behind Acosta on Friday.
“Tomorrow we’ll see more reality,” Marquez said of the drying predictions for the rest of the event.
“I think Acosta and Venares could be nearby. There are a lot of stop-and-go corners here and KTM is good there, especially when it comes to acceleration from the first gear.
“So I’m hoping for a strong Vinaru and Acosta. And the rest will have all the Ducatis at the top, as we see today.”
MARQUEZ – During Saturday’s sprint race, anyone trying to extend his undefeated run as a Ducati Renovo rider to a five-game winning streak rebounded from the wet morning high side to earn a top spot over 0.7 seconds in the afternoon.
“I made a mistake when it wasn’t the time to make that kind of mistake on the first lap of FP1,” Marquez said.
“But it can happen, especially confident, I was on the truck and riding like there was no water.
“Then there was a lot of water on that corner and I had a lot of aquaplane.”
Slick tires then appeared mid-afternoon.
“I felt good about the smooth tires, but (0.7s) isn’t the actual distance, because tomorrow everything will be tighter. But it’s good to start.”
Not only has Marquez won every race so far this year, he beat his brother Alex into both pole positions.
Alex was Gresini’s fourth fastest on Friday.