Marc Márquez said goodbye to the Qatar GP with a fourth place finish but was happy with his overall performance even though he took extra care at the end not to push too hard and end up on the ground. Progress is constant and the next round, in Portugal, will be very important to understand where he stands.
Here is the analysis of the Gresini Racing rider of his race, which was positive and also about management: ‘It was a regular, solid race. The start was better than the day before, we analyzed many things with the team to manage well and the start was better today and that helps a lot in the race and then I managed the tires well. The thing is that yesterday I already had difficulties and today most of the riders were managing the rear and I was managing more the front than the rear because every year, and with the other bikes [in Honda], it was the same, on this track I have difficulties with the front’.
The work has to continue, he confirmed, with himself having to take extra care in the race already in the final phase under penalty of… falling: ‘Anyway, I have to improve my riding style in some points because I’m not riding well, but today’s race was solid, I made my attack eight laps from the end and when I did it was when I started to push more with the front of the bike and ended up with the front tire. In the last two laps I gave up because the chances of falling to get two or three more points… I preferred to finish fourth and wait for the race in Portimão’.
The Spaniard also immediately made a prediction of what the race in Portugal might be like: ‘The weekend in Portimão will be important because usually in the tests in Malaysia and here it takes me a while to get to a good lap time, and the fact that we had a test here two weeks ago helped me a lot and in Portimão we will start from scratch. That’s where we have to understand where we are but, besides that, I feel that I am improving my riding style step by step’.
This evolution, he assures, will not always go smoothly: ‘There will come a point where we will hit a wall, and then you have to find a small hole to try to get a few tenths here and there. At the moment, [Pecco] Bagnaia and [Jorge] Martín, who were faster than me – among the Ducati – I have to learn from them’.
