Marc Marquez feeling a lot of ‘support from Ducati’ as momentum builds

Marc Marquez was in top form during Sunday’ Spanish MotoGP at Jerez, finishing second behind Francesco Bagnaia following a brilliant fight for victory.

Marquez, who lost time early, caught the two-time reigning MotoGP champion before attacking twice at turn nine. 

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But despite his best weekend aboard the Ducati in terms of performance, which did no harm in his attempts to join the factory Ducati team in 2025, Marquez does not want to think about the championship.

“It is too early. It’s not something where I don’t want the championship, but it is too early to think about the championship because I know that there will be some race tracks where I will struggle a lot<” said Marquez.

“But let’s see. We need to keep going and with this bike I feel some of the strong points of my riding style are weaker, but the weak [from before] are now a bit stronger.

“This is something that in the test will be important. During the race weekend it is super difficult and still we need to understand something on the balance of the bike.

“We have the tools that we have and I will do the maximum. But I feel the support from Gresini and Ducati and this helps me a lot.”

Marquez has been brilliant since joining Ducati, and despite crashes at COTA and Jerez, both of which were down to unusual circumstances, the eight-time world champion is clearly getting closer to a first win with the Italian brand.

One of the reasons for that is the natural speed he’s showing, which is not something that’s come about because of overriding, like at Honda.

“For me, the Ducati is the bike that is the most complete in all the circuits,” added Marquez. “Of course, in some circuits other manufacturers will arrive but it is a bike that when you understand the potential and how to use it, then the lap time comes, I don’t know why.

“You go out and the lap time just comes. You don’t do anything special or I don’t do anything special.

“Sometimes in the past I was struggling with both tyres, or fighting with the front, but with this bike at the moment I am smooth and the lap time is coming.

“This gives me more and more confidence. The good thing for me is that still I don’t have a crash because of overriding.

Yesterday [Saturday] I crashed, but it was a wet patch. To override and lose the front or the rear, still this has not happened. I still have margin to understand where the limit is.”

Marquez ‘stressing the front tyre’ in battle with Bagnaia 

After two attempts at taking the lead during the grand prix, Marquez was unable to mount a late charge as Bagnaia set a new fastest lap deep into the race to create a small gap.

Asked if he was too tentative early on, Marquez refuted that claim: “I attacked early but when I arrived to him I attacked. But when he pushed and made that 37.4s I lost a little bit and with those four tenths, I was stressing a lot the front tyre in the last two laps.

“The previous two laps from that attack on Pecco. Then I just gave up a bit because I had a lot of front locking and then the last lap I tried again because I was riding in a comfortable way. 

“I was pushing but I was not overriding. The last lap I said [to myself] I would do my normal pace and if he makes a mistake, but he did a very good race.

“The victory was on the first overtake at turn nine because the tyre was ready to do it.

“But when I did another two laps behind him it was impossible to stop well in the braking areas.”