MotoGP World Champion Marc Marquez said that it was target achieved after qualifying on the front row for tomorrow’s Spanish Grand Prix at Jerez.

The Spaniard had looked set for yet another pole position, before the unlikely duo of Fabio Quartararo and Franco Morbidelli created a historic 1-2 for the Petronas SRT Yamaha team.

Despite being down in third, it was mission accomplished for Marquez who said that a front row was the target.

“I’m happy overall with the day, we worked a lot on the race pace and in FP4 we were really consistent with the used tyre,” said the 26-year-old.

“Honestly speaking, it was a bit of faith in the qualifying; when it’s cloudy this track is easier to be faster, if tomorrow is warmer than everything becomes more difficult.

“I knew a few riders with the soft rear tyre were really fast, so for that reason I tired to use three tyres, but with the last one, the front tyre was too used.

“But apart from that we’re happy and we achieved our goal, which was the front row because it’s difficult to overtake. I didn’t expect to have these two riders [Quartararo and Morbidelli] ahead of me, but they did incredible lap times, 36.8 is a flying lap so just concentrating for tomorrow.”

Despite starting from third position, Marquez is firm favourite for Sunday’s race. When asked about who he expects to challenge him tomorrow, he said: “I think Dovi have a really food pace, he will be there, he has a lot of experience and he can manage different situations.

“Then of course Fabio and Franco, if they are in the front row they need to be there, and they will be, and fast.

“But Jerez is a really long race, it's 25 laps, it's difficult to keep concretion, short circuit, narrow, so we will try to focus on our bike and our performance, because at the moment I feel ready to fight for the victory.”

Marquez was also asked about the pole sitter, who took the record of youngest MotoGP pole sitter away from him. Marquez smiled, joked and said his job is to stop him taking another record from him.

“Already he’s beaten one record, which is the youngest pole man, so tomorrow I will try to stop him taking another record which is the youngest winner,” he said with a laugh.