RiderTua.com – Marc Marquez will extend his win tally at COTA Texas to 8, if he is able to claim victory on his Ducati debut at this Sunday’s Grand Prix of the Americas. Last year the 31 year old rider missed the Texas GP due to injury. But he was the unbeaten rider at COTA from 2013 to 2018. He celebrated his 7th win in 2021, and then surged up from last place to 6th after a false start in 2022.
After leaving Repsol Honda to join Gresini Ducati, the 6-time MotoGP world champion achieved his first sprint podium with the Desmosedici GP23 in Portimao. However, then Marc and Pecco Bagnaia clashed while fighting for 5th place in the grand prix, so both of them lost points.
Can Marc Marquez Achieve a Podium or Even Victory at COTA Texas with Ducati?
Marc Marquez emphasized that even without the incident, there are still 3 or 4 riders who are faster than him and that he has a chance of getting on the podium in Sunday’s race. The rider nicknamed Baby Alien said, “We arrived at a track that is good for my racing style. Of course, in the past we achieved many good results. But now, as we saw in Portimao, there are 3 or 4 riders who are faster than me.
“So let’s see, if I can get closer. If today, the media said, ‘I will get my first (Ducati) podium’, I would do it. I mean before winning, we have to get to the podium first. So step by step ,” he added.
Nonetheless, Qatar and Portimao are circuits where Marquez has personally never excelled while he has been untouchable at COTA for years. On the other hand, Ducati’s only victory at COTA to date was achieved by Enea Bastianini in 2022, when the Italian rider was in Gresini.
Marc explained that of course, both of them (Ducati and Honda) have very different bike concepts. The Honda is very strong in stop-and-go corners. As Alex Rins showed last year here, for example and as Marquez and Joan Mir showed in India.
“Let’s see how the Ducati works here. I know it will be different, but my target is to try to be flowing on this track. It’s a race track that I like. So we will try to enjoy it and then we’ll see. The main reason I was so successful “at COTA is because of its position (counterclockwise) and has more left corners than right. This is the biggest difference. And I also like stop-and-go corners,” continued Alex Marquez’s teammate and older brother.
Marquez emphasized, “Apart from that, I have one of the best memories in my career here, namely when I won my first victory in MotoGP to be precise in the second race. It will be difficult to win this weekend. Because as I said, first we have to get good results better in Sunday’s race and because at the moment we are not even able to fight for the podium. We are in the top 5, but the podium is still out of reach.”
The clash at Portimao left Marquez 33 points behind standings leader Jorge Martin.
Meanwhile, Pecco Bagnaia crashed while leading in last year’s COTA race thereby ‘giving’ a surprising victory to Alex Rins (then at LCR Honda). It was the first Honda RC213V win since Marc Marquez’s last win at Misano in 2021.
