Marquez at 66 degrees 'not because I like it, I need to'

Marc Marquez recorded a huge 66-degree lean angle on his way to the fastest lap time during Friday practice for the German MotoGP at Sachsenring.

But the reigning world champion would be pleased to use a far less spectacular corning style, explaining that the massive banking is simply a consequence of how difficult the latest RCV is to turn.

"If you check a little bit this year, we are using a lot of banking, too much. And the reason why we are using so much banking is because the bike is not turning," said Marquez, seeking his tenth Sachsenring victory in a row and fastest on Friday.

"So then I use all this banking not because it's my riding style, not because I like it, but because I need to. We are trying to find more turning by [modifying] the chassis."

That cornering quest led to Marquez trying the new Honda chassis, with carbon fibre bracing, on one of his machines in Germany. 

The 'problem' is that Marquez was fast on both frames and so might continue with more back-to-back tests on Saturday.

"Now we need to understand well,but maybe tomorrow I will use the same [two different chassis] strategy because it's still not 100% clear," he said. "With both chassis I'm riding fast and this is an advantage but also a problem, because then you don't know which one is better!

"But yeah, we know which are the strong points and weak points for each chassis. And with both chassis I feel okay."

The good news for Marquez is that he now feels confident enough with his base set-up to experiment with parts as significant as the chassis during a race weekend.

"Now it's time to analyse everything. Tomorrow maybe - I don't know - we need to check if we will keep using both bikes like this, because we have a good base set-up, so now it's time to try a bigger thing like the chassis."

The Spaniard was a close second fastest to rookie star Fabio Quartararo in morning practice then, in an unusual move for Marquez, he set the quickest time of the afternoon after switching to a new soft rear tyre at the end of the session.

"It's been a long time since I used a new tyre at the end of Friday," he confirmed. "Today just I put a new tyre, not to be fastest, just because the strategy to prepare for tomorrow was like this, to understand all the tyres.

"With the front for sure I will race with the hard, but the rear tyre I still don't know. I used the medium this morning, the hard this afternoon, and the soft at the end.

"Tomorrow we need to do more laps, but basically I felt good from the first run and that is the most important."

Marquez holds a 37-point title lead over Andrea Dovizioso heading into the final event before the MotoGP summer break.

Dovizioso was ninth fastest with Marquez's temporary team-mate Stefan Bradl in 14th place (+0.988s) as a stand-in for the injured Jorge Lorenzo.

"It has been great to work with the Repsol Honda Team so far, the level of everyone is very high and we are able to all work efficiently and well today," said the German.

"I'm pleased with how we have started as we aren't so far from the top guys and the times are very close so even a small gain can move you a lot on the time sheets.

"Tomorrow we will keep pushing and I think we can aim for the top ten."