Marc Marquez predicts GP23-GP24 difference at flyaway rounds

Marc Marquez expects to still be at a disadvantage with his machinery as MotoGP hits its flyaway rounds.

Marquez is battling for the championship on a year-old Ducati, whereas Jorge Martin, Pecco Bagnaia and Enea Bastianini have the latest version of the bike.

Much has been made about the difference between the GP23 and the GP24 already, with Marquez anticipating that slight disparity to continue into the flyaways.

“I mean, it has been like this all year, especially in this second part of the season,” he said of the difference between the GP23 and GP24.

“I won two races, but with two strange conditions. This weekend, the grip was super good and I was struggling more than the previous one [at Misano] where it was warmer temperatures and the track was slower.

“There I felt more comfortable. But yesterday when I tried to be on my pace, I crashed two times.

“So that gave me the answer that this weekend I was not ready, so step back, finish that race in fourth position and see what we can do in the next races.

“But for that reason I keep saying the same: if I want to fight for the championship in the future, I need to improve a little bit more to find that last half-tenth, one tenth, two tenths which sometimes is the difference in the end of the race.”

Marquez grateful for 'present'

Marquez says he was staring at a fourth-place finish in the MotoGP Emilia Romagna Grand Prix regardless of what he did before Francesco Bagnaia’s “present”.

The Gresini rider wasn’t able to replicate his race-winning form from the San Marino GP last weekend at Misano, with a crash in Q2 also hindering him as it left him seventh.

Marquez says his target for the Emilia Romagna GP was a fourth and noted that if he pushed hard to close the gap to the leaders he would not be advancing on that position.

Therefore, he took the decision to settle before Bagnaia’s late crash out of third gifted him the podium.

“I started the race with a clear target, which was that fourth place,” Marquez said.

“In fact, that first part of the race I was trying to control [Pedro] Acosta and [Marco] Bezzecchi, who were the two guys who had the pace to fight with me for that fourth place.

“Then I was there, I knew that taking a lot of risk would be fourth place, maybe four seconds behind the leader.

“Taking less risk would be fourth place, eight seconds behind the leader.

“So, in the end, it’s the same and it’s what we did. But fortunately for us, Pecco did a mistake and gave us a present and a podium position.

“Happy for the team to be on the podium one more time in its home race.”

With Enea Bastianini winning the grand prix, Marquez has slid back to fourth in the standings but is still only 60 points off the championship lead.