Marc Marquez “not giving advice” to Jorge Martin in MotoGP title fight
“I'm not going to give any advice to rivals"
Marc Marquez says he is “not going to give any advice” to Jorge Martin to help the Spaniard in his quest for the 2024 MotoGP title.
Coming into this weekend’s Indonesian Grand Prix at Mandalika, Martin leads the championship by 24 points after finishing second last week at the Emilia Romagna GP.
Having seen his lead over Francesco Bagnaia shrink to just four points after the Misano sprint, a crash for the latter boosted the Pramac rider’s advantage.
Sixty points covers the top four in the standings with six rounds remaining, with Marquez fourth in that ranking and publicly ruling himself out as a main title protagonist.
Indeed, when asked how he was coping with the pressure of a championship at this stage of a season, the Gresini rider was quoted by Motorsport: “For me, I already achieved my targets for this season.
“So, keep enjoying it will be the key.”
Last year, Marquez backed Martin to win the championship in the latter stages of the season because the Pramac rider had no expectations on him as a satellite team competitor.
Asked following the press conference in his Spanish debrief at Mandalika what advice he would have for Martin now, Marquez says his fellow Spaniard is on his own.
“I'm not going to give him any advice,” Marquez noted.
“According to you, I'm still alive in the fight.
“I'm not going to give any advice to rivals who are on the track or to future rivals.
“I'm not thinking about winning the title this year, but Martin is a current rival and will be one in the future.
“So, why should I give advice to my rival? I'll give it to my brother and that's it.”
Marquez has never finished a grand prix at Mandalika before, having crashed heavily in warm-up in 2022 and fallen out of contention during last year’s event.
But his target remains finishing inside the top five this weekend in Indonesia on his GP23.
“Will be interesting to understand where we are here,” the Gresini rider added.
“It’s true that last year… well, I’ve never finished a race here in Indonesia because in 2022 I had that massive crash in the warm-up here.
“Time to understand our level here and the target will be to be again in that top four, top five positions.
“It’s a track that I like. It’s not one of my favourites, but it’s a track that I like that has been in a normal level, not super good. I’m looking forward to understanding it with the Ducati.”
