MotoGP Jerez: ‘The potential is there but we were too far’ - Marquez

Repsol Honda and Marc Marquez have their work cut out for the Spanish GP after a difficult race in Portugal.

The eight-time World Champion eventually crossed the line sixth, having circulating for the majority of the race at the back of the top ten and battled with his LCR Honda-mounted brother in the latter stages.

“Of course, Portimao, we were far,” Marquez said bluntly from the Jerez Circuit on Thursday. “We were too far. Okay, you can check six position, not bad, but we were too far from the podium, from the victory and yeah, we struggle a lot on the race.

“We will try to find a way to be faster here in Jerez. Of course, already we have some ideas to try - not only the bike also myself, I need to keep improving and we are working on it. We will see on how we start in FP1 and from that point start to understand our performance this weekend.

“It’s true that is a bike that in big circuits is working really good - like we see in the preseason, like Malaysia, Qatar - but as soon as we arrive in the small circuits and you need to turn in a short time, that is where we struggle a lot and it’s where we need to understand,” he continued on the RC213V’s recent shortcomings.

“The solution is close or far. I mean, we don’t know. We don’t know but the potential is there. I believe the potential is there but we need to find the way, how to take profit about that potential.

“Jerez is a short and a small track and narrow. In a single lap everybody is really close but then on the race pace, as you see in the past, then everybody keeps the distance,” the Spaniard said of this weekend’s challenge. “It’s a racetrack very difficult to overtake on and now MotoGP with the aerodynamics, rear device, all these things, is even more difficult