Marc Marquez suffered his fourth crash of the 2025 MotoGP season on his way to fourth on the timesheets during Friday practice for the British Grand Prix.
The title leader had cast doubt on his pre-event prediction of Silverstone being a difficult circuit for his riding style by leading FP1.
But the afternoon hour, in which Marquez suffered a front-end fall at Turn 3, was indeed a tougher contest for the factory Ducati star.
“I closed the gas later. I braked later. I went in faster, with more banking… Result: Limit!” Marc explained. “I just braked too late.”
If the cause of the fall wasn’t a mystery, Marquez admitted it was perhaps not wise to cling to his GP25 for so long as it slid off track.
“It’s my instinct. I was thinking more to come back to the garage and continue with the same tyres, more than the crash,” he explained.
“I was thinking more to save the bike.
“But it’s true that it’s tricky because when I passed over the grass I hit a bit the hand.
“Thinking right now, I would say ‘just give up’ [and let the bike go], but my instinct meant I held the bike!”
Marquez was briefly pushed out of the top ten before easily claiming direct Qualifying 2 access with fourth place (+0.360s).
Meanwhile, younger brother Alex exploited his superior corner speed to top the timesheets for Gresini, with the Yamahas of Fabio Quartararo and Jack Miller separating the Marquez brothers.
“Here I’m struggling more than in Qatar,” Marc admitted, having emerged from Lusail with a perfect double victory despite also flagging that track as one of his weakest.
“I will work on my riding style. But I’m losing less than in the past, so for that reason I’m closer to the top guys.
“It’s true that it’s a bit like last year here, with the used tyre I feel better than the new tyres, while in the first races the time attack was also one of my strong points.”
The eight-time world champion, who agreed that Alex is still the rider to beat this weekend, could thus face his toughest battle yet to extend a perfect run of sprint victories to seven.
“There was only one right corner where Alex was incredibly fast, compared to the other Ducatis, which is turn 8,” he revealed. “But we know Alex. Here, Catalunya and Malaysia, all those long right corners, he is super fast and historically this has been one of his best tracks.
“From FP1 to Practice, I already reduced a bit [the Turn 8 gap], but he gained in others. So in the end, we have some up and downs. I’m gaining a lot in some corners. He’s gaining a lot in other corners.
“Of course, he will work on his weak points, I will work on mine. But it’s like the tendency, as always: Long right corners he is faster, left corners I’m faster.
“Let’s see what we can do for tomorrow.”
Marquez lost some valuable practice start time when he suffered a technical issue at the end of the morning session.
“A sensor detected some error, and I received a message to stop the engine,” he said.
“Of course, the practice start becomes more and more important, especially because with the front device, rear device it’s difficult to disengage at the [fast] first corner here.
“It’s not like Le Mans, but it’s difficult. But it’s like this, so I cannot think about it.”
Instead, he’ll call upon the same sort of instinct that put his hand at risk in the afternoon fall.
“I will try to follow my instinct tomorrow at the start.”
Marc will start this Saturday’s Sprint with a 22-point lead over Alex.
Factory team-mate Francesco Bagnaia was seventh on day one at Silverstone.
