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For the first time in late November and with the enthusiasm of a child on Christmas Day, Marc Márquez rode the bike with which he will compete in 2011. After a restless night, in the morning he faced an engine almost five times bigger than the one he had when he competed in the eighth-litre of the World Championship —600cc instead of 125cc—, and a bike that is twice as heavy and has more than twice the power. From those first laps he has drawn his initial impressions of the category in which he will run next year.
The 125cc World Champion will face next season with the challenge of adapting to the hard-fought intermediate cylinder races. A few days ago he could test his feelings on his new Moto2 firsthand for little more than a day of testing at the Jerez Circuit. It was a short but productive practice, in which Márquez was able to appreciate how the main features of his bike affect its behaviour on the track.
With a set-up as close as possible to a 125, the Repsol rider could begin to see the main differences. For example, the power increase will force him to take further braking references, since in a Moto2 more speed is reached in the bends, but he should also check how he leaves these bends behind, because the Repsol pilot found out that, when accelerating, the power was so great that the front wheel lifted off, something that did not happen in the eighth-litre category.
In bends the situation also changes: the weight difference is noticeable and Márquez could confirm the inertia generated at the Jerez Circuit, which makes directing the bike at the apex of the curve in the right spot quite difficult. However, one of the most important changes is in the engine behaviour, 4-stroke, identical for all participants, which, especially in braking, has a completely different behaviour than that of a motorcycle of 125 and 2-stroke. According to the pilot from Cervera (Lleida), get to manage the “engine compression brake” adequately —that is, the same movement of the engine to stop the motorcycle— is what optimizes the braking and the access to the bend, and controls the movements of the bike when it tends to skid on the wide tires that these machines have.
Despite the limited experience with his new bike and his young age, only 17, Marc Marquez has shown his sensitivity to any machine with two wheels in his first contact with the bike. With these feelings and an ear-to-ear grin, Emilio Alzamora’s pupil left Jerez and said goodbye to the circuits until February 2011, when the pre-season trainings will start again and his adaptation to the Moto2 category will truly begin.
