“Unlucky” Marc Marquez left in Qualifying 1 at Le Mans MotoGP

On a day when three Ducati riders finished in the top four on the Le Mans MotoGP practice timesheets, an “unlucky” Marc Marquez was just 13th fastest and must face Saturday’s Qualifying 1.

Ninth in the morning session, the reigning world champion then joined his fellow GP26 riders in debuting an in-season fairing update in the afternoon.

However, while Fabio di Giannantonio, Alex Marquez and Pecco Bagnaia took the battle to Honda’s home hero Johann Zarco at the top of the timesheets, Marc Marquez struggled to put a time attack together.

The Spaniard’s Q1 fate was then sealed when a late crash for team-mate Bagnaia brought out yellow flags.

“I feel better every session, so this is the most important,” Marquez told MotoGP.com.

“Unlucky we are in Q1, that is not the best. But let's see, we will keep working, try to do our best, find the maximum.

“The team is working super good, and the bike is working well - as we see many Ducatis in front, and just I will try to keep going and try to improve.”

Marquez declined to say if he would have made Q2 without the yellow flags.

“You never know. The thing is if you are fast, the yellows don’t matter because you will do one good lap sooner or later.

“It looks like on the time attack I'm struggling a bit more than the race pace.”

In terms of what he’s missing, Marquez told Sky Italia: "I'm not pushing the front as usual, I'm not riding hard, pushing the front tyre. Let's see if I can do that..."

Rain remains a 75% possibility on Sunday, “But I believe that in the dry we can improve.

“Q1 is the worst practice of the weekend because it's super difficult, but we will try to improve tomorrow, if it rains or is dry.”

The top two riders in Qualifying 1 will advance to the Q2 pole position shootout.

The only other Ducati riders who failed to secure direct Qualifying 2 access were Franco Morbidelli (18th) and Fermin Aldeguer (21st), on satellite spec machines.