Marc Marqu💧ez says he battled “various problems” throughout Friday practice at the MotoGP Japanese Gra𒀰nd Prix despite finishing second-fastest.

The Gresini Ducati rider narroꩲwly missed out on topping Friday’s times in the hour-long afternoon session, with 𝓰Brad Binder beating him by just 0.033 seconds.

But Marquez’s one-lap speed couldn’t mask the proble🌸ms he was having on the bike throughout second pra👍ctice, with the eight-time world champion seen acting visibly frustrated in his Gresini box at one stage.

Commenting on his day, ༒Marqu𓆏ez said: “Today was a strange day, first of all for the weather.

“And on the other hand we had a very strange practice in the after💎noon with various different small problems.

“But we were not able to work in a normal way.

“We don’t understand nothing about the tyres, but fortunately on the time attack I felt good and I was able to be fast. B✱ut now I need to find that consistency.”

When pressed on what exactly his prob🔥lems were, Marquez remained coy - though in his Spanish debrief he noted that on🐻e of his issues was braking.

“Many things,” he r🥃eplied when asked what problemsꦉ he had.

“I cannot go on the details. But we had small different problems and was a very important pra📖ctice.

“So, for t🦄hat reason, I knew it was also important tꦦo go in Q2.

“That was the main reason I was [spending] a lot of t🐎ime 🐼in the box - to prepare well, to fix the problems and just do the time attack.”

Marquez’s crew chief꧅ Frankie Carchedi took to social media to state: “That was one of the toughest Fridays of the year.

“Nothing was💮 working, but figured a few things in the las♒t 10 mins.”

Both Gresini ride🌠rs earned direct passage into Q2 for qualifying on Saturday, with Alex Marquez eighth at the end of second practice after making a late improvement to a 1m44.033s to vault ahead of the VR46 Ducati duo of Fabio Di Giannantonio and Marc Bezzecchi.