For reigning world champion Marc Marquez, day 1 back on track on his Honda in 2017 was fairly quiet in terms of position, as the Spaniard ended the day in ninth.

But a good program of work saw the five-time World Champion happy with the mountain of information gathered. Completing 56 laps, most in the dry but some in the wet as rain interrupted the session towards the end, Marquez did a best of 2:00.738.

Working on engine configurations and comparing data, the rider from Cervera was satisfied with day one after his first outing back in the seat in 2017.

“Feeling today wasn’t bad considering the first session back after the break is always a bit of a challenge for the rider and the team." Said Marquez who set the ninth fastest time on Monday.

"We’ve been trying two bikes with two distinct engine configurations but concentrated mostly on one – working on the electronics, the geometry, setup…"

We got a lot of information and we’ll keep working on it. We also decided to take the opportunity to do a few laps in the wet when it started to rain." He added

"We’re excited to get back into dry track time, to get a better understanding and get to the potential of our bike.”