Alex Marquez believes he is the favourite for the British GP win following a comfortable sprint victory ahead of his brother Marc Marquez. Starting from second, Alex took the lead from his brother after the elder Marquez brother went wide, eventually finishing 3.5s ahead.
This breaks Marc’s sprint race winning streak, the factory Ducati rider having won the last six sprint races consecutively.
When asked if he felt he was the favourite tomorrow, the Gresini rider said: “Yes.
“I came here many times and I said ‘the maximum tomorrow is to be second.’
“Tomorrow, no. Tomorrow, the maximum will be to be first.
“We have a great opportunity, but we cannot ride over our confidence that is really high. We need to keep calm and not lose points as we did in Le Mans.
“When you are really confident, you feel really good, it’s so important. It’s what I was trying to not do in the sprint race, just to control, and to be the leader.”
The younger Marquez has typically played down his performances this year compared to his brother, but after winning his home race in Jerez earlier this year, appears to have a newfound confidence in his ability.
When asked about whether it was important to beat his brother at Silverstone, he replied: “Not really, because it was something that I already knew before we came here [that it] can happen.
“I know that at some tracks, and the majority of tracks, he will be again on that step forward than us.
“But it’s important in the moment, on the day, that we have the opportunity to make it, because these days like this, we can be alive in the championship.
“It’s really important to be there, and to be able, not just for crashes, also on track, to close a little bit that lead that he has.”
What does Marc Marquez have to say about his brother?
Marc Marquez, Ducati Team
Photo by: Ducati Corse
Marc acknowledged his brother’s strong performance in the sprint, saying: “Alex is faster here,” continuing:
“He was already the fastest in 2023, but we had a mechanical problem. And again one more time, this year he is the fastest.
“And last year was one of the races that he finished closer to me, so it means he is riding in a very good way.”
Marc also discussed his own problems, saying: “I’m struggling. When you are trying a lot of setups and you don’t feel comfortable, it means you are the problem, it’s not the bike that’s the problem.
“It will be interesting to see where we are with the medium rear tyre, because Friday with the medium, I felt super good, FP1, FP2 in the first part, until we put the soft and I started to struggle, and today we ran all day with the soft.
“So I want to understand what we can do with the medium rear and then from that point also the front.
“Tomorrow, everybody needs to go with the medium, because the soft didn’t finish the race.”
Alex Marquez, Gresini Racing, Marc Marquez, Ducati Team, Fabio Quartararo, Yamaha Factory Racing, Francesco Bagnaia, Ducati Team
Photo by: MotoGP
Silverstone also has a lot of fast right-hand corners, which following his injury, Marquez struggles with. When talking about his struggles at turn eight, which is a speedy right-hand bend, he said: “I cannot improve there.
“Since the injury, I struggle even more there on the long right corners to control everything.
“But I have another strong point so let’s take profit from that.”
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