Marc Marquez: 1,000 day wait for a MotoGP win ‘doesn't matter’

It’s been over 1,000 days and almost 3 years since Marc Marquez last stood on the top step of the podium at a MotoGP race, during the 2021 Emilia Romagna (Misano) round.

The long-awaited 60th MotoGP victory is the last real milestone missing from Marquez’s revival season at Gresini Ducati, which has produced three runner-up finishes so far, two of them by less than half a second.

Another potential chance slipped away on Sunday in Austria, a weekend Marquez labelled as “one of the best”.

The eight-time world champion qualified on the front row but was forced to start without his front ride-height device engaged, then tangled with Franco Morbidelli at Turn 1 and eventually salvaged fourth.

But with a factory Ducati contract already in his pocket for the 2025 and 2026 seasons, Marquez insists this year is for ‘building’ and that victory ‘will arrive’ next year.

“For me, it doesn't matter,” Marquez said of his ongoing win drought. “I know that this year is a year to build and I'm building.

“I tried to go step by step. It’s true that we started [the season] so good, [then] it looks like we did step back and now looks like we come back again.

“In this second part of the season we need to keep building and try to be on the podiums. 

"And the victory - if it's not this year, next year it will arrive.”

Marquez averaged eight wins a season for Repsol Honda from his 2013 MotoGP debut until his arm fracture at Jerez 2020.

He took his final three wins on an RC213V during the 2021 campaign at the Sachsenring, COTA and Misano.

Marquez is currently fourth in the world championship but five places ahead of the next-best GP23 rider.