The 2013 World Champion found a big improvement in Free Practice 4 that allowed him to overcome the testing advantage of the Satellite and Open bikes. Fortunately his leg injury did not prove a major hindrance in the practice sessions.

Marquez posted his pole time of 1’54.507 on his seventh and last lap of the session, bumping down Alvaro Bautista (GO&FUN Honda Gresini) to second and Bradley Smith (Monster Yamaha Tech 3) to third. His time was 0.200s faster than Jorge Lorenzo’s pole position time from 2013.

“I’m very happy, after the injury and the loss of half the preseason it’s very important to be here on the front row. But the pole position makes me happy. The satellite riders did a test here and I don’t think they’ve changed their bikes much since FP1, but step-by-step we’ve improved. There’s still some space to the perfect set up,” he commented

Looking ahead, “Tomorrow is the most important; it will be very hard as there are many riders on the same pace. Physical condition will also be difficult for me, as I don’t have full power in my leg so I have to use more arms and this is quite hard over long distance. I think it will be a great race for the fans.”