Marc Marquez says he battled “various problems” throughout Friday practice at the MotoGP Japanese Grand Prix despite finishing second-fastes🗹t🌜.

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

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

Commenting on his day, Marquez said: “Today was a strang꧟e day, first of 🦹all for the weather.

“And on the other hand we had a very stran💎ge practice in the afternoon with♛ various different small problems.

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

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

W꧟hen pressed on what exactly his problems were, Marquez remained coy - though in his Spanish debrief he noted that one of his 🌌issues was braking.

“Many thiജngs,” he replied when asked what problems he had.

“I cannot go on the details. But we ha𝓡d small different problems and was a very important practice.

“So, for﷽ t♛hat reason, I knew it was also important to go in Q2.

“That was the main reason I was [spending] a lot of ti🐎me in the box - to prepare well, to fix th🎉e problems and just do the time attack.”

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

“Nothing was working, but figured a few things in the la🐻st 10 min🌱s.”

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