Marc Marquez said he was happy with his opening day of free practice in Motegi on the weekend he could win his fifth MotoGP World Championship.

Coming into the weekend, Marquez has his first match point to be crowned MotoGP World Champion for a fifth time in his six years in the class. The Spaniard ended the day in fourth place courtesy of his FP1 time, with the Spaniard sitting out of the damp FP2 session.

Marquez will win the World Championship if he finishes ahead of Andrea Dovizioso, who was the fastest man on the opening day of free practice. Marquez’ times were close to those of Dovizioso and said the Italian will be tough to beat this weekend.

“I felt competitive and strong in FP1 and I was able to ride in a good way,” said the 25-year-old who thought better of going out in the mixed conditions in FP2.

“It’s a bit to early to understand where we are. I see that Dovi’s going to be fast this weekend. If you see a little bit the pace it wasn’t incredible. We are equal. But I know Dovi’s style and he was riding in a good way, so it’ll be tough.”

Marquez said he has to still do a lot of work with his Repsol Honda team before he can feel confident with his race pace this weekend.

“The base set-up is not bad but still we need to adjust many things,” he said.

“So we’ll continue in the same way. It doesn’t matter, as we’ll use the same mentality as always and keep working. We need to adjust many details, such as acceleration and braking stability.”