Marc Marquez names "the strongest" contender at Austrian MotoGP

Returning to MotoGP after the summer break was not perfectly smooth for Marc Marquez, who admitted after Friday at the Austrian Grand Prix that he took some time to get up to speed after a month away from racing.

Marquez arrived in Austria for this weekend’s race having won five grands prix in a row before the break, and topped both sessions at the circuit which has never seen him take victory.

But he said the “sweet feeling” took a while to arrive on the opening day.

“It was a good day,” Marc Marquez told MotoGP.com after Practice in Austria.

“Not a perfect day because the feeling takes time to arrive – the good feeling, the sweet feeling.

“That FP1, maybe after the summer break, then in FP2 [Practice] in the beginning I was struggling. But then step-by-step I get the rhythm, I get the correct brake points, I get the correct lines, I start to be more constant that was very important.

“Apart from that, I’m happy with how I feel and let’s see tomorrow. The target is to be on the front row in qualifying.”

Marquez added that braking is the “key” to being competitive at the Red Bull Ring in MotoGP.

“Brake points are the most difficult points and the key of this Red Bull Ring,” he said.

“If you are constant in the brake points, then for the race pace you have much more options.”

Pecco Bagnaia “maybe the strongest”

Although Marquez was fastest in both sessions, he indicated that the pace of his Ducati Lenovo teammate, Francesco Bagnaia - who indicated he felt better with the front end of his Desmosedici GP25 than he has done all season after Friday in Austria - was notable to him in Practice.

“Pecco [Francesco Bagnaia] has been always super-strong here,” Marquez said.

“He won the last three years in a very good way.

“Today also, he was super-good on race pace, maybe the strongest one.

“Pecco is a two-time [MotoGP] World Champion and here is one of his circuits. Let’s see if we can be close to him.”