MotoGP | Marquez: “The comeback? I’m not proud of it.”

It is now common opinion that qualifying in the current MotoGP has become fundamental. However, Marc Marquez denied this thesis at Le Mans and, to reiterate the concept, he also replied in Barcelona. Starting from 14th place on the grid, the Gresini team driver achieved a spectacular comeback, once again climbing onto the podium.

However, Marquez acknowledged that he isn’t too proud of comeback races, because it means he isn’t effective on the flying lap: “I’m not proud of it, especially because if you make a comeback it means you’re coming from some mistakes.” There was no shortage of risk in Sunday’s race: Marc had opted for a soft tire on the rear, chosen in contrast to the trend of his rivals, who had played it safe by using the medium. “I felt almost forced to ride the soft.”

“I don’t know if it was better or worse, I had that extra grip in the first laps which allowed me to overtake the others, but in the end I was in difficulty. Even so, I took Aleix with the Aprilia and had something more. I told my team to give me the warm-up average to do the formation lap, if I didn’t have a feeling I would have mounted the soft. On that lap I felt that the feeling wasn’t good and I mounted the soft tire. We managed it well in the race, in the end I struggled a bit to keep Aleix behind, but he was also struggling with the medium.”

The third position achieved with an attacking race was an impressive show of strength for the eight-time world champion, who closed the Catalunya Grand Prix with third place in the championship, 41 points behind the leader Jorge Martin and only two lengths behind the second and winner of the race, Pecco Bagnaia: “Obviously we are fighting for the title. Why? We are third in the championship after just six races.”

“But this is our real option,” explained Marquez. The Gresini rider is fighting for the championship mathematically, but he believes he still has to make some steps forward to really be in the game. Looking at the start of the season, Marc thinks he would have signed if they had told him that after six races he would be third. “The riders in front of me are faster. If we want to always fight with them, we have to improve in qualifying. If they had told me at the beginning of the year that I would be third in the championship by now, I would have signed. Being on the podium in Montmelo is special and important, because it is one of the tracks I don’t like.”