Reigning MotoGP champion Marc Marquez emerged unscathed from t𝓡wo falls and went on to secure a front row start for the season-open🏅ing Qatar night race, at perhaps Honda's worst circuit.

The Repsol Honda star fell jus🅰t moments after 𓆉team-mate Jorge Lorenzo in FP3, but while Lorenzo was thrown into a painful highside Marquez was blown off track bya gust of wind and lost the front.

"It was only the second lap and maybe I pushed too much," he said. "I knew I was on the kerb, but then the wind pushed me and I didn’t realis I was out of the track. Then when I came back I lost the front. So completely my mistak🍃e, but I know for tomorrow in the race."

The second sp🔴ill occurred at Turn 6, again a lowside, as temperatures dropped in FP4. Marquez admitted that his healing shoulder meant he didn't try and save it.

"On my left-side I have less power at the mome✱nt to save the crashes, and for that reason at Turn 6 whe𝄹n I lost the front I didn't try," he said.

Because of th🃏ose spills, Marquez opted for a change of strategy in qualifying, which saw him seek a tow behind Ducati's Danilo 🥀Petrucci and vault to third on his final lap.

"Maybe [I could have done it alone], but with more risk," he said. "So my target was tryꦓ to have less risk. I'd already crashed two times today and in qualifying you need to push and I didn't feel ready to push. So I just tried to change the str🐼ategy.

"But 🍒you know Moto♚GP is like that and we cannot forget that Danilo went out in front of me in the pitlane. So nothing more to say."

All of which meant it was a🧸 caseꦡ of mission accomplished:

"I'm very happy to be here on the front row because I don'🍸t know if it's the worst circ🧔uit on the calendar, but it's one of the most difficult for us and we are very close to the top guys.

"I don’t know [why it's diffi♏cult for us] because I've only rode the Honda. But like Dovi said, this is a very special track. For example with this new bike I felt really strong in Jerez and Malaysia, but since we arrived here I felt like we were struggling like every year.

"Maybe you can ask my team-mate that is cꦺoming from another bike [why the Honda struggles in Qatar]. We saw today also, Jorge is a guy that doesn’t cඣrash a lot and already two crashes.

"It's something difficult to understand and something that we are trying to understand. But it's only on๊e track on the c🎃alendar. So in the other tracks it should be better."

T🧸urning to Sunday's race, where he lost out to Dovizioso by j♕ust 0.027s one year ago, Marquez said:

"These two guys [Vinales and Dovizioso, first and second on the grid] are very fast but I feel good in all the track. For example yesterday I was struggling in some areas, but in FP4 we rode with a lot of laps on the tyre, we tried a few things and when I put together all that we know I'm ওfeel🎀ing good with the bike.

"It also depends a lot on the temperature. Today it was ice. As soon as we arrived at 8pm the track so slippery and we saw som⛎e strange crashes on the left corners."

Riders had warned that moving the race from 7 to 8pm would make tracks conditions riskier, but their request to revert to a 🌃7pm start fell on deaf ears.

"We already pushed a lot yesterday, nearl♕y all the riders, to change the time because we are taking a risk that is not necessary," Marquez said. "I mean, we are racing at 8 and last year we raced at 7.

"Of course you never know how the weather will be, but we are taking a risk that for ღthe safety is not necessary. But anyway if we need to race, we will race, but it would be better at 7."