MotoGP Jerez: Marc Marquez: 5th-10th is our position now, past is the past
But there have been only four podiums in the 18, injury-interrup♈ted, races since and the Repsol Honda rider doubts that statistic will change at Jerez on Sunday.
Still struggling with front feeling on the new RCVꦺ, Marquez used all his guile to hitch a tow from faster riders in each of his three Saturday sessions.
The last of those, behind reigning world cham🎉pion and pre-race favourite Fabio Quartararo, allowed him to claim a competitive-sounding fifth place on the grid.
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But the Spaniard is 🙈under no illusions as to the task ahead and claimed a top-five finish will be a good result in the race.
“We are not𓆏 ready to fight for the podium,” Marquez said. “A good result will be to try to be in the top five. But even like this will be very very, very difficu♑lt. From 5th-10th is our position at the moment and it’s where we will try to fight.”
Marc Marquez: ‘The past was the past’
The eight-time world champion insisted he’s not getting ♊frustrated at having to set his sights on suc🔯h lower targets.
“You only get frus﷽trated if the expectation is too high. My expectation today was to try to be on the t🍸hird row and I finished second row, so I'm happy,” Marquez said.
“Yesterday I was 19th ღand in Portimao I finished 16-second behind the leader, so y🐽our target needs to be optimistic always, but at the same time try to achieve what you can.
“And tomorrow w🐈hat we can achieve is 5th, 6th, 7th place. In a good race. Not in a bad race. So it’s what we will try.
“Of course, I would like to say I'm ready to win or fight the 🌳podium, but now we are not ready. The past was the past. Now is now and in the past everything wa🐈s easier. Now everything is more difficult, so we need to work.”
After trying some radical changes on Friday, without success, Marquezꦕ and his crew went back to a normal base set-up for day two.
“With this new bike y🐼ou need to ride in a different way. Yesterday, we tried to adapt the bike in a radical way to my riding style, but I cannot ride this bike like this, so today we came back to the way that the bike wants you toဣ ride. To what is more-or-less the same base for all four Hondas.
“It's true that in my personal case still, I'm still struggling a lot with the front. The turning is slow. It’s there where we need to uꦿnderstand because as soon I try to push a bit more, then it's easy to crash.”
Rejecting tꦛalk that design of the new bike was too heavily influenced by the other Honda riders, Marquez admitted the new machine is fundamentally different from those he won 59 rac🦩es with from 2013-2021.
“I heard some comments that ‘they didn’t follow the comments of Marc’, but I agreed with that change,” Ma﷽rquez said. “But it's true that with the [old] bike everything wasܫ more natural.
“It was a bike that I rode since 2013, someꦛ evolutions, but the character was the same. Now it's a big difference, and even Honda is trying to understand many things.
“Pol for example. He's riding in a different way, he's fast even though he's starting 13th. He’s riding maybe better than me wi💃th this new bike because I think he can ride it a bit similar to what he had in KTM.
“Last year I won three races, but in Austin i🍌t was also possible to win [again this year], Germany is coming up and the Misano win was because Bagnaia crashed. Then I did a podium in Aragon.
“So it’s sti෴ll in the left tracks [where I’m strongest]… like Austin, you could give another bike to me and I would be fast there. It’s like here with Nakagami; always at J⭕erez, he’s riding well and fast.
“So there i🎉s something also with the riding style I need to impro♔ve and I try to push myself to understand this as well.”
After missing two races due to diplopia&nꦡbsp;and taking a best of fifth in the other three, Marquez starts the Jerez race just eleventh in the world champ🔯ionship standings, 38 points from Quartararo and Alex Rins.
LCR’s Takaaki Nakagami has qualified in seventh place, with Pol Esp🐟argaro 13th, wild-card Stefan Bradl 20th and Alex Marquez 22nd.
While Marc Marquez remained upright after Friday's double fall, Espargar🌱o, Bradl and Alex Marquez all suffered front-end accidents on Saturday.
Peter h𝔍as been in the paddock for 20 years and has seen Valentino Rossi come and go. He is at the forefront of the Suzuki exit story and Marc Marquez’s injury issues.
