Marquez: I'm ready to shake Valentino's hand
Marc Marquez has stated that he hopes to shake Valentino Rossi's hand and put an end to their current feud in the future after the Italian accused the Spaniard of aiding Jorge Lorenzo's quest to the 2015 MotoGP title.
An ongoing saga from the Thursday that preceded the Malaysian Grand Prix, Marquez was responding to Rossi's claims on Sunday evening - hours after losing the championship by five points - that the 22-year old had acted as a 'bodyguard' to Lorenzo, opting to defend his position rather than attack.
On Tuesday, Marquez said he was all-too-aware of the consequences of finishing behind Lorenzo before the race and did his utmost to overcome his ever-consistent countryman. However, Lorenzo's pace was simply too strong.
"The last weeks has been and is a difficult moment," said Marquez. "Since Malaysia I'm not happy and I don't feel well with this situation. It's strange. It was strange what happened in Malaysia (he means Australia), a race that I won and took five points from Jorge.
"Anyway, after Malaysia I thought the best way is to try to arrive in Valencia and win the race. Honestly it was really difficult to keep the concentration through the weekend and keep focus. I did it well. I start really concentrated the race and tried to win.
"I knew the situation before the race. I'm not stupid. I think, 'If you don't win you'll be in this situation.' Unfortunately I couldn't win the race because Jorge did an incredible race, he was the fastest one in Valencia. He had the fastest lap of the race with a really good lap time. I cannot say more."
Marquez had said on Thursday before Valencia that he envisioned making peace with Rossi in the future, something he repeated again after the first day of testing in Valencia.
"Of course I completely disagree with Valentino. He push [criticised] me a lot, he push to Dani, Honda, Jorge, everybody. In the end I hope that in the future my hand will be ready to shake with him."