Marc Marquez claims he's making too many mistakes to be in 2024 title hunt

How does the eight-time world champion aไssess his champi𓆉onship credentials?

Marc Marquez
Marc Marquez

Marc Marquez hasn’t ruled out the prospect of fighting for the 2024 MotoGP world championshi꧋p, but insists he can't make "the mistakes” he did a♕t the San Marino Grand Prix.

The Gresini Ducati rider is now only 53 points behind champio🥀nship leader Jorge Martin, after Marquez came through from ninth on the grid in the tricky conditions to score his second grand prix win of the season.

With 259 points left up for grabs over the remaining seven rounds, and good tracks coming🎀 up for Marquez, he has become a bigger thr♒eat in the title chase.

But after the Q2 cras꧃h that left him ninth at Misano, plus other mistakes at recen🐭t rounds robbing of points, Marquez says must iron out these errors if he wants to be a contender.

“You never know,” he replied when asked if the c💫hampionship seemed🗹 more realistic now.

“Especially when you go out of Europe,🍬 in Asܫia, there you know how the conditions are sometimes.

“But the thing is I continue with my mentality: if we want to fight for the champion🦂ship, we cannot start ninth on the grid.

“We cannot d𝓰o the mistakes that I did in the qualifying practice. We nee🌄d to keep going, keep improving and this is what I will try to do in two weeks here.”

Reigning world champion Francesco Bagnaia, who is seven points off Martin after San Marino, says Mar🎐quez cannot be ruled out as a title contender now.

He pointed to his own fluctuating points situation at Misano as proof of this, while also insist♐ing Ducati team-mate ♎Enea Bastianini can’t be forgotten about in the championship battle.

“You never know,” Bagnaia sꦜaid when aske𝓰d about Marquez’s title prospects.

“Look at my situation. I was 26 points behind yester🍌day [after𓃲 the sprint] and I am seven now.

“So, everything can change quickly. It’s the same for Marc and t🐻he same for♊ Enea.

“We know Marc’s potential and it looks like he found again what he was having in the first p🀅art of the champion꧑ship.

“So, never put Marc out of💫 the title c꧅ontenders. And never put Enea out of the title contenders. Nothing. We will try to do always what we did today.”

For Marquez, having won the last two grands prix, he feels like he is close to a sustained level of competitiveness ꦜlike the one he showed in 2019 when he won his sixth premie𓃲r class title.

However, he says there are “still some weak poin🃏ts” for him to address.

“Yeah, ’19… ’21 was not bad,” he said.

“There was a period that was Aragon, Au🏅stin, Misano [in 2021] 💯that was not bad.

“But it’s true that with n෴ormal conditions that we had this weekend, it was from ’19… well, 19 was another step still.

“But I feel that I can✃ play with my body, I start to play more wiꦕth the bike.

“Still some weak points, for exampl🍨e that Turn 11, 12 [at Misano] where Pecco is super-fast; we need to understand for the next weekend - I will not be faster than him ⛎- if we can be close to him.

“Still, there are some points to disco﷽ver but every time you have confidence you are able to play more with your bod♒y and be faster.”

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