Marc Marquez has set out a purpose of ending inside the highest three within the MotoGP standings this 12 months, as he admits retaining manufacturing unit Ducati rider Enea Bastianini behind “gained’t be simple”.
Gresini rider Marquez has been part of MotoGP’s ‘massive three’ group this 12 months alongside reigning champion Francesco Bagnaia and Pramac ace Jorge Martin, with the trio locking out the rostrum at Le Mans and Catalunya.
However Marquez has discovered the going more and more harder on final 12 months’s GP23, with Bastianini posting a robust risk to him in latest races on the full-factory Desmosedici. Even after scoring a podium end within the German GP final weekend, the Spaniard has discovered himself being outscored by Bastianini 61-52 within the final three rounds.
With the 31-year-old now sitting solely 11 factors away from the Italian in third place, he says his goal is to cement his place as a substitute of looking down Bagnaia and Martin for the title.
“This primary a part of the season has been good. Not tremendous tremendous good as a result of we did some errors but it surely has been good. We’re third within the championship,” he summed up on the Sachsenring after ending second.
“It may be a superb goal attempting to be within the first three positions within the championship as a result of it will not be simple to maintain Enea behind. He’s a quick rider.
“We are going to maintain preventing, continue to learn from the highest two guys within the Ducati which can be Martin and Bagnaia. They’re a bit sooner than us.”
Marc Marquez, Gresini Racing
Photograph by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Photos
Marquez’s adaptation to the Ducati with Gresini has been nothing wanting distinctive, with the six-time MotoGP champion scoring 4 grand prix podiums within the first 9 race weekends and incomes himself a manufacturing unit contract for 2025.
Nevertheless, there have been some obtrusive errors as nicely, significantly his collision with Bagnaia in Portugal and a crash out of the lead of the Americas GP.
His one-lap tempo has additionally been patchy, forcing him to undergo Q1 quite a few instances when he clearly had the tempo to qualify on the primary 4 rows. His common qualifying place after Sachsenring was simply 7.4, regardless of a pole place at Jerez.
Requested to look again at his 12 months to this point with Gresini and Ducati, Marquez gave himself an 8/10 grade whereas reiterating that he must do a greater job in qualifying to be able to constantly struggle on the entrance.
“For me, 8 [out of 10] as a result of it was a superb begin of the season however a couple of errors, particularly Austin after which the dash race in Assen. Two massive errors. The remainder are acceptable,” he mentioned.
“The one factor we have to work on throughout the second a part of the season is to attempt to make a totally good weekend. All weekends some issues occur, [both] small issues [and] massive issues.
“We had been a bit inconsistent throughout the weekends. We noticed it in Le Mans, we are saying it in several races, we have to discover a bit extra fixed [performance] throughout the weekends and be immediately to Q2 and attempt to enhance the Saturdays.”
