Marc Marquez Makes His MotoGP Debut!

Cycle News Staff | November 14, 2012
Marc Marquez MotoGP debut.

Although his MotoGP debut came a day late because of inclement weather yesterday at the Ricardo Tormo Circuit in Valencia, Spain, Moto2 World Champion Marc Marquez gave everyone a glimpse of the future with his first day of testing today on the RC213V.

Marquez tested the 2012 bike and did an initial run of five laps with his first flying lap timed at 1:44.934. By the final lap of his first run he had brought this down to 1:35.846 and he continued to shave time off this for the rest of the session. In the end, his fastest lap was 1:33.403 – placing him seventh on the day after a total of 28 laps and just 1.081 off his teammate, Dani Pedrosa – the winner of Sunday’s MotoGP in Valencia.

“I feel so happy,” Marquez said in a team release. “We waited the whole day for the track to dry so that we could finally try the bike, but it took such a long time. In the end I began to get impatient and the track was drying up so we decided to go out. In the beginning it was quite difficult, but very nice to feel the power of the bike. I had a lot of wheelie on the straights, but I gradually gained confidence on each exit and got faster and faster on every run. I tried to adapt my riding style from Moto2 because there was quite a big difference. There are many things to improve and try, the front tire was also very different to what I’m used to but the main thing is that we have had good start and I have a very good feeling with the team.”

Marquez will test again in Sepang, November 26-28, with Pedrosa joining him for a test of the new bike, February 5-7.

Pedrosa’s 1:32.322 led today’s test with Monster Energy Tech 3 Yamaha’s Cal Crutchlow second at 1:32.671. LCR Honda’s Stefan Bradl and Ducati’s Nicky Hayden rounded out the top four with Hayden’s teammate Andrea Dovizioso finishing the test in sixth.