Marc Marquez “surprise” during “diesel day” at Balaton MotoGP

Marc Marquez continues to dismiss his chances of fighting for victory in either of this weekend’s Balaton Park MotoGP races, despite a strong opening day in Hungary.

The reigning world champion, continuing to recover from shoulder surgery, set the FP1 pace for the first time in a year, then was the fastest on used medium tyres in the afternoon - before being shuffled to seventh in the time attacks.

But the Ducati Lenovo star explained that it had been a “diesel day” of conserving energy, said that a second row start will be a “big success” on Saturday and ruled out fighting for the Sprint win.

“I'm not getting tired at the moment because I did a diesel day,” Marc Marquez said.

“It's not the best way to work with the setup, or for the riding style, but I just pushed for single laps.

“But let's see if tomorrow I get up in a good way and try to improve, especially my riding style.”

Told that he looked more in control than a week ago at Mugello, Marquez replied:

“Yeah, I was more in control because I feel worse. Let's see if tomorrow I feel better.

“What I don't want to have is a big crash. It's true that when you are pushing, you can always crash, especially in tight corners.

“But today I tried to manage all those things and to keep in the tank some power for the next two days.”

Marquez said he felt fatigue set in after just a few laps.

“This morning I went out, and I tried to push, but in two laps I felt like the body position was not correct, so I stepped back the pace by half a second, one second.

“But then it's super difficult, because when you want to attack, you need to brake later and you don't have the correct references.

“But today this was my strategy, to be better tomorrow.”

The nine-time world champion added: “I was surprised to be fastest in FP1, but then it was a normal result in Practice.

“I was expecting to be from fifth to tenth, and tomorrow my target is to try to be in the second row. This will be a big success; let's see if I can.”

Told that some of his rivals were picking him out for victory, the Spaniard, a double winner from pole at Balaton Park last year, insisted:

“If it's for 5 laps, yes! If it's for 13 laps, the Sprint, I have no option.

“The speed is there because, as I showed in Mugello, over one lap I was close to the pole position.

“But, no. I'm happy to hear [the others say] that, but it's not the time.”

Fabio di Giannantonio finished as the top Ducati rider, in second behind KTM’s Pedro Acosta.

Marquez’s factory team-mate Pecco Bagnaia failing to make the top ten for direct Qualifying 2 access.