“It was a solid weekend,” says Marc Marquez, summing up his first Grand Prix with Ducati. After fifth place in the sprint on Saturday, the Gresini driver finished fourth in the race over the full distance the next day and even had a sniff of the podium at one point, but then settled for fourth place.
“The race today was consistent and solid. I attacked in the last eight laps, and when I attacked, I started pushing more with the front and destroyed the front tire. Then in the last two laps I gave up, because I saw the risk of a fall,” explains the Spaniard.
That wasn’t worth the chance of two or three more points for him. “So I preferred to finish fourth and wait for Portimao in two weeks.”
Marquez mastered the starting phase in Qatar better than in the sprint. Starting the race from sixth place, he was already in fourth place after the first lap: “We analyzed a lot of things with the team to get a better start, and it was better today. That helped us a lot in the race.”
Front tires often a problem for Marquez in Qatar
“I was then able to handle the tires well,” he explains, but adds: “The problem was that I was already struggling yesterday. Today most drivers took it easy on the rear tire, but I paid more attention to the front tire.”
“Because every year that I was on this race track with the other motorcycle (the Honda; editor’s note), I had to struggle with the front tire. But anyway, I have to improve my riding style in some ways “I’m still not riding well,” says the Ducati newcomer.
Nevertheless, he managed to stay within striking distance of the podium for large parts of the race. Although he was temporarily overtaken by MotoGP rookie Pedro Acosta, he regained the position and seemed to be able to catch up with Jorge Martin in third place. But there was no attack.
“At the moment it is (race winner) Bagnaia and Martin who were faster than me today and I have to learn from them,” analyzes Marquez with a view to his brand colleagues.
And he emphasizes: The fact that they are faster is not because they ride the current factory bike differently than he does. “No, they’re just faster. One is world champion, the other is runner-up. And they were also much faster than the others in the second part of last season. So I don’t think it’s just because of the GP24.”
Why Portimao is so important for Marquez
“I have my bike, I have my tools, and when I signed my contract I knew what I was going to have. The bike works well,” says Marquez, who wants to continue working on his riding style on the GP23.
The next stop of the season in Portimao will be an “important weekend”. “Because normally during the tests, in Malaysia and here, I need time to achieve good lap times. The fact that we had a test here two weeks ago helped me a lot this weekend.”
“So in Portimao we will start from scratch. There we have to understand where we are. But overall I feel like I’m improving my driving style step by step. There will come a point where I hit a wall.” But he hasn’t reached the limit of the motorcycle yet.
The six-time MotoGP world champion is still satisfied with his progress so far: “As in the previous season, they were solid days. I tried not to exaggerate, not to make any mistakes and to stay calm in all situations.”
Marquez praises Gresini, recognition of Bagnaia
“As I said on Thursday, the expectations are very high, but I stick to my approach. I want to be patient this year. I want to enjoy again. I want to fight for the top five places and I did that this weekend. And yes, I enjoyed it,” says Marquez.
However, not so much in the race: “Today I suffered, but I think everyone did. Yesterday I enjoyed it a lot, but today I suffered more than I enjoyed.”
“We made a small change to the bike that helped in some areas but was worse in others and I struggled a little with that. But the team did a very good job. They helped me with the electronics and to understand all that and I was able to put it into practice in the race.”
This didn’t go unnoticed by Francesco Bagnaia. “He did well, definitely,” he says of Marquez. “He came fourth and he is Marc Marquez, eight-time world champion. So I expected him to be competitive. As for the title, I don’t know. But he will certainly be an opponent.”