Marquez: If I crashed, the team would kill me!

Marc Marquez revealed he was under strict instructions not to crash in this week’s two-day test at Valencia, joking "my team would kill me” if he fell while assessing two new bikes from Honda.

The reigning world champion is planning to undergo surgery in early December on a problematic left shoulder that he dislocated bizarrely during title winning celebrations in Japan.

Two further bruising crashes at the season finale didn’t help, and Marquez was all-too-aware of the consequences of a further fall while testing.

Not that it affected his speed. The 25-year old felt “really fast … really strong” from his first exit on Wednesday, and led much of the day’s running. In the end Maverick Viñales and Andrea Dovizioso demoted him to third overall.

That was while he was testing two new machines from Honda, both fitted with difference engines and chassis. On Tuesday, Marquez stated the aim was to have a ‘friendlier’ front-end of the RC213V, that was less critical on the front tyre.

And the fact he ran for parts of the day on Michelin’s medium front tyre compound boded well. “Today we had different bikes and one was with different specifications,” he said.

“It looks like the last evolution that they brought here is the one that is working in a better way but still they have a few evolutions on the schedule that will arrive.

“But anyway, I think we worked in a good way because today straight away I felt really fast and really strong, but then I stayed there on the times because I was forbidden to crash for my physical condition, if not, the team kill me.

“But yes, it was just riding, just be focused to try the things and it was a positive day, we got a lot of information. Still many things to improve but I think we are in the correct way.

“Looks like, step by step, today is the first day that I was able to ride with the medium front tyre that was the P compound and during all this season I was not able to ride with that compound.

“Even if it’s true that it was too soft for me, but to go to the hard was to my risk and then I didn’t want to take the risk today. But it’s positive because with the other chassis it was impossible to ride with this compound and today I was able to ride all the day with the medium compound.”

Asked about the different engines he tried, and what they were attempting to achieve, he said, “Everything, when you are talking about engine is torque, but with durability and also smoothness, all the things, it’s not only toque, and it’s there where we need to work because when you try a new engine some time you feel more torque but then you need to adjust many things on the electronics.”

Marquez said he hadn’t spoken to new team-mate Jorge Lorenzo through the day. Nor had he consulted the Majorcan’s data.

When it was put to him their relationship could resemble the infamous Prost-Senna inter-team duel from Formula1, the seven-time world champion insisted he was hopeful he could enjoy a serene relationship with his countryman, similar to that he has with Dovizioso.

“I think of course on the track both riders want to win the title and both riders want to be in the front and both riders will try to give their 100%. But then outside the track we are teammates, until now we had great fights in Austria, in Brno and we had a professional relationship.

“Of course he is more mature than me but also I have a lot of experience and in the end, inside the track is one thing but outside the track you can have a good relationship like I have with Dovizioso.”