MotoGP | Marquez: “The incident with Bulega? I made a mistake”

Here we go again, MotoGP is back in action this weekend and it does so at Silverstone, where the 75th anniversary of the World Championship is being celebrated. What better occasion to return to the track after the summer break? On the iconic English track, Marc Marquez presents himself as a pursuer in the championship, but he is still a great protagonist who makes people talk about him (for better or for worse) even with the engines off.

That was the case last weekend, when the eight-time world champion took part in WDW, the highly anticipated Ducati event that takes place every two years. The Gresini rider climbed onto the podium of the Race of Champions (the usual race between Ducati riders in the world championship), but dragged a series of controversies behind him due to a contact with Nicolò Bulega on the last corner of the last lap.

During the British Grand Prix, Marquez had the opportunity to explain his point of view, acknowledging that he had made a mistake: “I tried an overtaking move that I am used to doing with the MotoGP race after race. It comes easier to me, but at the time I didn’t realise that I was on a road bike and that the reaction would be different, so I made a mistake. I wanted to talk to Bulega to understand how we had touched. The bike was going great, we were lapping at the record, but the references of a road bike are not the same as those of a MotoGP”.

Despite this, it seems that the “Ducati people” have great affection for the eight-time world champion, who has now become a standard-bearer for Italy, racing for the Faenza-based team (which, in turn, is based in Borgo Panigale): “Ducatisti have no nationality. Obviously, they are mostly Italian, but at WDW they support the brand and what Ducati is. That’s what I do too, even though I’m a racing rider. I go to the track and try to give my best every time, I want to defend the Ducati colors to the fullest and let’s hope that we can continue to win for the next two years”.

With the WDW now behind us, it’s time to focus on the World Championship, which returns this weekend with a renewed challenge for the title. Can Marc be in the game? He is fourth in the championship, 56 points behind leader Pecco Bagnaia and 46 points behind second-place Jorge Martin. Although the gap isn’t too wide, the rider from Cervera wants to remain realistic in light of an impressive display of strength from the two riders ahead of him.

“The title? It’s complicated. I could say we’re trying, but we’ve been defending on Sundays since Le Mans. If you want to fight for the title, you have to be as consistent as Jorge Martin and Pecco Bagnaia in terms of speed. I’ve always said: if you have speed but then you crash like Martin, you can fix it. If you don’t have speed, it’s harder to fix it. We’ll try to give 100% and take a step forward, but we’ll have to see how much the fastest riders in the category will raise the bar,” Marc explained.

Marc Marquez, Gresini Racing

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

But how can you beat a Bagnaia who seems truly inspired? “You have to go faster than him, but what happened to Martin at the Sachsenring can happen to you. It’s a mistake that happens, if two riders are lapping at the record, one of the two makes a mistake. It will be like this from now until the end of the year, where you take more risks, it’s easier to make a mistake there. I’m too far away to expose myself to this risk. In Jerez or Le Mans I would have said I was willing to take this risk, but since France we’ve struggled more. There will be tracks where I’ll be ready to fight with them for the win if I have a perfect weekend, but we won’t be superior to him”.

“They know the bike very well, they are able to adapt to every situation based on what the bike needs. At the moment I have a very defined style with this Ducati, if I try to change a style in a corner to imitate their riding style, I struggle. For this reason Saturday continues to be one of my weak points, starting from the third or fourth line you can’t do anything with two faster riders,” he said.

Finally, Marquez commented on the emotional celebratory livery for the 75th anniversary of MotoGP. Gresini brought Fausto’s livery for the occasion, the one we had already seen in action in some way last year at Misano, but which has remained iconic: “Our livery is very special, it’s the bike that Fausto rode… It’s an emotional livery. Not because it’s mine, but if I were to make a top 3, my bike would be on the podium, it’s important to be there in every situation! The other two? I really liked the Yamaha, then Freddie Spencer’s Honda… I would put these in the top three positions. The official Ducati is beautiful, but it’s very limited by the sponsor logos, so it’s difficult to make retro designs”.