RiderTua.com – In his debut with the Ducati GP23, Marc Marquez finished 5th in the sprint race in Qatar. The 6-time MotoGP world champion rose one position in the main race of the Qatar GP (finished 4th) 3.4 seconds behind winner Pecco Bagnaia and only 1.5 seconds short of the podium.
Marc considers that this Qatar race was a solid weekend. He didn’t do anything ‘crazy’ from Friday to Sunday. “Today there was an improvement so my start worked better. Yesterday we worked on it intensively with the team. If we start well, everything will be easier in the race,” explained the Gresini team rider.
Marc Marquez: More likely to crash than podium
Tire management is not an easy thing. Yesterday it was also explained that Marc must pay equal attention to the front and rear tires. His racing style still needs improvement. Marc still has to learn more about Ducati, says Marc Marquez.
how long will it take? “Portimao should be a good indicator. I already tested it in Sepang and in Qatar, which of course helped a lot. In Portugal I started from the beginning. Which makes me optimistic. I’m learning step by step 0.1 seconds here, 0.1 seconds there,” answered Baby Alien.
Alex Marquez’s brother and teammate admitted that he was not as fast as Bagnaia and Jorge Martin, who were already on Ducati. And that’s not just because, they are both equipped with the latest 2024 bikes. Pecco is world champion, Martin is runner-up. They were already the fastest riders with Ducati last year. No, I’m happy with my material and the team. “They don’t know my style in racing yet, so we took the safe route in terms of tire pressure to avoid penalties for minimum pressure at all costs,” said Marc Marquez.
And Marquez also learned other things from the past. “In the last 10 laps I started to attack. But in the last two laps I let go of the pressure because I felt closer to a crash than a podium. I would rather give up some points and try again later in Portimao,” concluded Marc Marquez.
