Marc Marquez reveals secret self-imposed target to provide new hope despite COTA

Marc Marquez has revealed a target that he set himself which will provide optimism after his COTA crash.

Marquez fell out of the lead at the Americas MotoGP due to a braking issue, meaning he left his favourite circuit point-less.

Should Marquez feel despair for not capitalising by winning in Texas, where he has won seven times before? Or did riding at the front with a technical problem prove his competitiveness?

He told TNT Sport before the Americas MotoGP that he had hit a self-imposed target for his earliest races with Gresini.

“My target - I did not say - was to be in the top five in the first two races,” he said.

“And I was in the top five in the sprint race and the long race.

“Then, in Portimao, again. Top five, I was there.

“In Qatar I was fighting with Jorge Martin, in Portimao I was fighting with Pecco Bagnaia, the top guys inside Ducati.

“This makes me happy, relaxed.”

Marquez currently sits 44 points behind championship leader Jorge Martin after three rounds.

Perhaps worryingly, he has zero points from the past two grands prix although arguably through no fault of his own.

It makes judging the ex-Honda star’s start to life as a Ducati rider quite tricky.

But his own insight into the target set by himself suggests that Marquez is optimistic about what is still to come.

Marquez 'shook hands' with Bagnaia, said "I understand"

In Portimao, he was sent into the gravel by Francesco Bagnaia.

“Of course in Portimao we took zero points but it wasn’t a mistake, it was a racing incident,” Marquez said.

“One day they hit me, one day I hit them. Nobody wants that. These things happen in racing.

“I watched it back. I already said, it’s a racing incident which can happen.

“Of course, it is a racing incident which somebody can avoid. The one who is coming from behind. In this case, it was Pecco.

“But it was a racing incident. It can happen. It happened to me in the past.

“We are on the limit, the last three laps, you open the gas more, you don’t expect the other rider to be there, and you hit. Okay, we shook hands.

“I said to him: ‘I understand’.”

The next round of the 2024 MotoGP season in Jerez.

Marquez knows that he needs some results in the European leg of the season to catch up Martin, at the summit of the MotoGP standings.

But his coy suggestion that he is largely hitting his targets is a major hint that Marquez has more left in the tank, as he adapts to his GP23.