Valencia MotoGP: Marc Marquez happy to 'save' result after Q2 crash

Marquez, who earlier identified his left shoulder as a "weak point" and is set to have an operation on it in December, looked well-placed to claim pole in Valencia after comfortably topping the sole dry practice session of the weekend.

Yet Marquez crashed at Turn 4 on his very first flying lap in Q2 and looked in pain as he got up after rolling through the gravel.

Marquez got back to his pit garage and says he was cleared by a doctor to return to track action, which he did in the final minutes of the session, finishing just 0.130s off poleman Maverick Vinales.

"I was unlucky because I was not pushing, just maybe the tyre was not at the correct temperature and I lost the front," Marquez said.

"I arrived in the gravel and I already felt something strange on the shoulder.

"I cooled down a few moments, but I met with the doctor and we made the check and everything was fine, so I felt ready to ride again.

"I went out again on the track, of course I didn't push like normal, because it was painful and I did not have enough confidence to push, but even like this we finished just one tenth behind the pole position, in fifth place,

"I'm happy because in the end we saved the qualifying [session]."

Marquez dislocated his shoulder when celebrating his 2018 title success on the cool-down lap at Motegi, and admitted he has since been suffering with the injury.

"Of course since Motegi the problem is that I didn't stop," he said.

"I rode in Phillip Island, I rode in Valencia - the shoulder, the injury is there. It's something you can fix only with surgery.

"Last week, training a little bit, not with the bike, I felt some strange movement and again the pain appeared."

Marquez is known for shrugging off crashes with relative ease, but admitted he struggled to take the Valencia crash out of his mind on his final run.

"Of course [it] was impossible [to ignore] because the pain was there," he said.

"I just did two laps and then [after] the last lap I already stopped in the [pit] box because [that] was enough.

I said, 'okay, I don't want the pole position, just I want time to be there in the two front rows'.

"I think [fifth] was even better than what I expected, because the pain was there, but the most important is that I was ready to ride the bike, like we see, because the laptimes were fast.

"Now it's important to work in a good way, to be not 100 per cent [fit] tomorrow, but to be there."