The Indonesian Grand Prix brought back to reality all those who believed Marc Marquez’s ninth title was possible, after so much suffering. Although the Gresini rider had lowered his expectations from the beginning of the season, many did not believe him, thinking they could see him constantly fighting for the world championship. However, Mandalika has given the final blow to his options, putting him 78 points behind leader Jorge Martin.
The zero that the eight-time world champion encountered in Indonesia takes him to Japan with little chance of getting back into the fight. In a very tense season where making a mistake even just once can cost you dearly, Marc was betrayed by the engine, which also ruined his world championship hopes: “In factories, when an engine breaks, we go on alert. I was at Honda many years and the same thing happened. We are trying to understand why, if measures can be taken… They are analyzing everything to see what happened.”
The analyzes are important to understand if this problem could also affect the two favorites in the world fight, but in the meantime Marc maintains that his and Enea Bastianini’s world championship chances are now reduced to the bare bones: “Both Bastianini and I couldn’t make mistakes, because if had we made a mistake we would have been out of the championship. So it was, one thing happened to him, another to me, but not having scored points meant that the gap was too big.”
“So now it’s a two-horse fight. For me it’s the same, I knew it would be very complicated, especially because we had to chase. Somehow it gives me a certain tranquility for these last races, in which I will continue to work on my weak points while confirming the strong ones”, explains the driver from Cervera, who does not hide a certain tranquility in no longer feeling among the favourites.
Thus, Marc will face the Japanese Grand Prix calmly, knowing that he wants to concentrate on consolidating the strong points, and then improving the weak points. It will be interesting to do it on a track that is historically congenial to Ducati: “I can see it well! Ducati brakes well, this track is stop&go, which is one of the strong points of the Desmosedici.”
Marc Marquez, Gresini Racing Team
Photo credit: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
“But I also think that KTM have a good opportunity to have a good weekend. Even last year, taking the Sprint as a reference which was dry and offered a better reference than Sunday’s race, Brad Binder was second and Jack Miller fourth. We will try to have an excellent weekend, then we’ll see what happens”, warns Marc, who doesn’t believe in Ducati hegemony at Motegi, given the past.
However, the Desmosedici GP24 still has something more than last year’s version, which Marc has. So will they be the ones to make the difference? “The biggest disadvantage compared to the GP24 is when the rear lowering is activated: the more it is activated, the more disadvantages you have and here it is activated in different points. Surely the 24 will have other weak points that we will try to compensate for. Consumption? This year we haven’t had many problems, but usually this is one of the tracks where you suffer the most due to the long straights,” explains the Spaniard.
This will be the first weekend at Motegi that Marquez will not experience as his home race. In fact, until last year, the multiple world champion was absorbed by the Japanese vortex, being a Honda rider. In 2024 he arrives in the Land of the Rising Sun as a Ducati rider and does not find himself overwhelmed by commitments. It will, therefore, be an emotionally special weekend: “The Japanese Grand Prix will be like many others now, even if I will have a special helmet because it will be the home race of Shoei (the brand of helmets that Marc uses, ed)”.
“It continues to be a grand prix which, on an emotional level, reminds me of many moments. Above all because I spent many days with Honda, it is one of the tracks where I spent the most time, outside of racing. It’s a bit strange to arrive here and not have events or visits to the factory on Wednesdays,” concludes Marquez.
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