Since he left Honda to embrace a Ducati GP23 for Gresini Racing, Marc Marquez, winner of 85 World Championship races, of which 59 in MotoGP, has flirted with victory several times, but without achieving it, something for which he does not he wants to “obsess”.
Marquez was second in the Portimao Sprint, second again in the Austin Sprint. In Jerez he raised his level and placed second in the long race, after a spectacular duel with Pecco Bagnaia. At Le Mans he then achieved a double second place, on Saturday and Sunday, this time overtaking the two-time world champion at the last corner. Five times, therefore, the Spaniard came close to a first victory which for the moment eludes him.
However, after seeing him on the track and, above all, after seeing how he behaves on the podium and in the paddock, no one doubts that this first victory will come sooner or later to definitively end the nightmare that led to the serious injury to his right arm in 2020 .
A victory that, why not, could come in the home Grand Prix, in Barcelona, next week. “No, in Montmeló I would dare to say that it won’t be like this, because my history in MotoGP is the worst circuit to try,” Marquez admitted on Sunday when Motorsport.com pointed out this possibility to him.
Marc Márquez, Gresini Racing
Photo by: Marc Fleury
“But we’ll see how it goes with this bike, I’m not ruling anything out a priori,” he added, having not yet ridden the Desmosedici GP on the Catalan circuit. “From here on, if we continue to work as we have done so far, I am confident that the first victory will come, but I don’t want to be obsessed with it,” he added.
“The fact is that the first victory can come, but to fight with these two riders you have to be perfect in all areas,” he said, referring to Jorge Martin and Bagnaia.
“The mistake we made on Friday in Le Mans, for example, can be saved in one weekend, as happened this time, but not in all Grands Prix. We will have to be very careful because they don’t make mistakes in any qualifying, they always start from the first two rows and this makes life a lot easier,” he added, referring to the fact that he did not pass Q1 and started 13th on the grid.
Despite this, he managed to recover on both Saturday and Sunday to second place, something he himself considered almost impossible.
“Just look at how many riders went from 13th to second place in today’s MotoGP. It’s difficult to overtake, but it’s true that on Saturday, after the Sprint, I underlined and sent the message that for me the pace shown in the race was more important than the comeback at the start. The pace after the start determines the pace of the long race on Sunday. An unreal start like the one on Saturday depends on many factors. The start on Sunday was good, but not like Saturday’s.”
“The pace I had in the Sprint gave me the peace of mind to move forward throughout the race, to have third close, which was the position I was looking for. I managed to pass him and saw that I had the pace. It’s true that in one lap (15) I did my best time and they (Martin and Bagnaia) battled in front, and that’s when I gained them a second, the one I had lost to Fabio Di Giannantonio. So I was happy to fight with the two.’ Ducati’s roosters”.
Marc Márquez, Gresini Racing
Photo de: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
And if the Sprint’s start was spectacular, with a fourth place on the first lap, Sunday was no different. “I tried to make a start like the one on Saturday, but it also depends a lot on how the others start and at the first corner I wasn’t able to keep the line from the day before, there was a rider on the inside and I could have lost time there. When I secured my position and went through the first chicane I wasn’t able to move up that many positions,” he explained.
One of the highlights of the race came at the end, when Marc overtook Bagnaia to take second place on the podium.
“I launched from very far away. On Saturday in that corner (9-10) I didn’t have confidence, but on Sunday I had a lot of confidence, I could brake very late, I could stop the bike by going behind other riders. It’s also a corner where you can make a mistake and there is room to manoeuvre, you can go a little long in the chicane and come back. Since it was the last lap I expected Bagnaia to attack Martin, because I saw him very aggressive in Jerez and I thought he would attack him, because he had good acceleration, but I saw that he didn’t, so I thought I’d to be able to try,” he said.
“I came out of turn eight very well, but not enough to think about going to get him, but when I saw that Pecco wasn’t reacting, I tried to do so. Then I didn’t know where he was and at turn 11 I defended myself and went out to full speed, I thought he would come to get me. I then saw in the images that he tried, that he was right behind me at the last corner, but I had pace and speed in the fourth sector and I was calm, but both (Jorge and Pecco) ) they had a great race”, he commented.
It was an overtaking full of value and symbolism, even if Marc downplayed it a bit. “It was a good overtaking, but not for the victory. It left a good taste, yes, because it was a good maneuver. But an overtaking, to be special, must be the one for the victory”, he said.
Even if Marc doesn’t want to be obsessed with victory and doesn’t want to say publicly that his real goal is to fight for the title – he’s currently third in the general classification, 40 points behind Martin and just two behind Bagnaia – what the Catalan greatly appreciates it’s his state of mind.
“The thing that gives me the most peace of mind, and you can see it on my face, is that I’m having fun. Just look at people to immediately understand if they are having fun or if they are suffering. This year we’re relaxing, we’re having fun… On Saturday we qualified 13th, what can we do? We can’t get angry. We knew that it could happen in some Grand Prix and it will happen other times, because there are small things, details that in MotoGP make you lose six positions at once with just two tenths of a second. But this year I’m having fun and I’m having a lot of fun,” #93 said happily.
Podium: second Marc Márquez, Gresini Racing
Photo de: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
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