MotoGP | Marquez: “In 2019 the value of a victory was nothing, now it is a lot”

Not all victories have the same value and one can still excite you a lot, even if you already have eight World titles in your palmares. Not noticing the emotion on Marc Marquez’s face after finding a success that had been missing for over 1000 days, in fact, was impossible. Yesterday he had already made it clear that it was within reach, dominating the Sprint of the MotoGP Grand Prix of Aragon.

Today, however, the Gresini Racing rider did an encore in the actual race and it was truly like breaking a curse. After the serious injury in 2020 and Honda’s technical crisis, the move to Ducati gave him back his competitiveness, but he had always lacked the push to return to the top step of the podium.

But he has always been a master on the ups and downs at the gates of Alcaniz and the precarious grip offered by the new asphalt created the optimal conditions to hunt down this triumph and Marc did not let it slip away, dominating from the lights going out to the checkered flag, under which he presented himself with a margin of almost five seconds over his pursuers. The rest was all emotion.

“You could see that this victory was coming, so it was very difficult to keep my concentration at maximum in the last five laps. I started to think about everything we did with my team, with my people, all those who helped me during my most difficult period. In 2019 the value of a victory was nothing, now it is a lot, because it gives you this emotion. I tried everything to be competitive and to have succeeded so it is a great satisfaction”, said Marquez as soon as he arrived to the microphones of Sky Sport MotoGP.

When asked if this statement deserves a special place among the most important of his career, the #93 had no doubts: “Absolutely yes, because after 1000 days you forget what it means to win. I think my body hasn’t gotten used to it yet (laughs). But it’s a victory that I’ve been looking for a lot. Last year I bet everything by deciding to come to Gresini Racing to get on the best bike. As I said, I wasn’t living with an obsession for victory, but I still had a great desire to win and that was the most important thing to continue training and never give up”.

There had already been other occasions this season in which he had given the impression of being ready for victory, but he had not yet managed to materialize. This is why today there is great satisfaction.

“I agree and that’s why I was calm. This year I’ve seen victory very close many times. Both in Austin and in Germany, where I paid for a mistake I made on Friday. But I was also fast in Jerez, in Le Mans and after Austria I arrived here with a lot of confidence, so I said to myself: ‘come on, it will come, it can’t be that Bagnaia and Martin keep this level for 20 races’. It’s a pleasure to win here, but now we have to continue working, because this was a very particular weekend for the track conditions, even if it was like that for everyone”.

After this victory, we need to understand how the prospects for the final part of the season change, now that he has regained third place in the world championship standings and reduced the gap to leader Jorge Martin to 70 points.

“Change, you won’t ask me anymore, because now the victory has arrived (laughs). My goal is to try to be at my best and fight for the podium in all the races. We’ll see if there will be the possibility to fight for the victory in some races between now and the end of the year, otherwise the goal is to get on the podium and stay in the front group”, he concluded.