The Gresini rider acknowledges the challenge of keeping Ducati’s Enea Bastianini at bay as the season progresses.
This MotoGP season, Marc Marquez has set a lofty personal target for himself: placing in the top three positions overall. Even so, the Gresini rider acknowledges that it will be difficult to overtake Enea Bastianini of the factory Ducati.
Throughout this year, Marquez has consistently been part of MotoGP’s elite trio alongside reigning champion Francesco Bagnaia and Pramac’s Jorge Martin. The trio dominated the podiums at Le Mans and Catalunya. Despite his strong performances on last year’s GP23, Marquez has found the competition increasingly stiff, particularly from Bastianini, who has been closing the gap in recent races on his full-factory Desmosedici.
Even after clinching a podium finish at the German GP, Marquez has been outpaced by Bastianini, who outscored him 61-52 over the last three rounds. With only an 11-point lead over the Italian, Marquez is now focused on maintaining his third-place position rather than chasing Bagnaia and Martin for the championship title.
Reflecting on his season at the Sachsenring after finishing second, Marquez said, “The first part of the season has been good. Not super super good because we made some mistakes, but it has been good. We are third in the championship. It can be a good target to stay in the top three because it won’t be easy to keep Enea behind. He is a fast rider. We will keep fighting and learning from the top two guys in Ducati, Martin and Bagnaia. They are a bit faster than us.”
Marquez’s transition to the Ducati with Gresini has been remarkable. The six-time MotoGP champion has secured four Grand Prix podiums in the first nine race weekends, earning himself a factory contract for 2025. However, his season hasn’t been without its faults. Notable incidents include a collision with Bagnaia in Portugal and a crash while leading the Americas GP. Additionally, Marquez’s inconsistent one-lap pace has frequently forced him to go through Q1, even when he had the potential to qualify in the top rows. By Sachsenring, his average qualifying position was 7.4, despite achieving pole position at Jerez.
When asked to assess his performance so far with Gresini and Ducati, Marquez rated himself an 8 out of 10 but emphasized the need for better qualifying to consistently compete at the front. “For me, it’s an 8 because it was a good start to the season, but there were a few mistakes, especially in Austin and during the sprint race in Assen. Two big mistakes. The rest are acceptable,” he noted.
Marquez identified consistency as a key area for improvement in the second half of the season. “We need to work on having completely good weekends. Every weekend, something happens—small things or big things. We were a bit inconsistent. We saw it in Le Mans and other races. We need to find more consistency and aim to go straight to Q2 and improve our Saturdays,” he concluded.
Image Source: google.com
