MotoGP World Championship points leader Marc Marquez has said that he is happy with his pace and how competitive he is, despite struggling over large parts of the weekend.

Marquez has been having a strange weekend, ending FP2 down in eighteenth position. Despite that, Marquez seemed to put all of that behind him when he put his Repsol Honda in second position, just 0.015 seconds behind Fabio Quartararo’s pole time.

“During the weekend we’ve worked in a different way,” said the 26-year-old.

“We tried to be consistent and work for the race, try different tyres and then in the qualifying we show the potential and it was in a good way. I think we did a good lap, even though we were ready to fight for the pole, we fight but we miss by nothing.

“But for tomorrow I think we're in a good shape and this is the most important. Looks like the Yamaha riders are riding in a really good way.

“Will be crucial to decide the rear tyre, because it looks like medium and hard are working good. But apart from that we’re struggling but we're there and this is the most important in the championship.”

When asked what kind of race he is expecting and whom he is expecting to challenge tomorrow, Marquez said: “We will see. Looks like the rhythm of the riders is really close. We have three or four riders with a very similar pace.

“But anyway I feel better than Mugello, this is important. I feel like I can manage in a different way, I can be more constant. Then we will see the final result.

“But the target is to try and finish in front of our opponents for the championship – which are the two Ducati’s and Rins – if some Yamaha riders are faster than us, and we need to survive we will try to survive.”

The World Champions qualifying lap came when he was sat behind the factory Yamaha of Valentino Rossi. Marquez was down to improve and potential take the pole position, before a big moment in turn four put an end to that. Marquez did say that he picked up a few things on the Yamaha whilst following the Italian.

“Honestly I just followed him in FP2 very close, when he was with a new tyre and I was with the used, and I see a few things,” he said.

“But basically it’s always the same. The Yamaha’s carry the speed in a very good way and here at this circuit you need to carry the speed. They carry the speed; have good traction and looks like the conditions of this weekend.

“Everyone expected Ducati vs. Honda, but it’s the opposite. Looks like the bikes are working better, the Yamaha and Suzuki who have less torque and less power. Its interesting to understand as we have one very long straight but then thirteen corners that they arrive in a very good way.”