Marc Marquez believes he can best hope for a third-place finish in Sunday’s German Grand Prix unless he is able to make a step overnight, despite going unchallenged for victory in the sprint.
While Marquez has been the fastest rider so far this weekend at the Sachsenring, setting the fastest lap on Friday before topping both qualifying and the sprint on Saturday, the factory Ducati star believes repeating that result in the grand prix won’t be easy.
The Spaniard reckons he wasn’t the fastest rider in the half-distance race, believing it was his strategy that allowed him to outfox both his younger brother Alex Marquez and Fabio di Giannantonio.
Marquez has won at the Sachsenring 12 times during his career, including nine in the premier class, but warned he faces a much more difficult situation this time to remain on top.
“That’s what happens at Sachsenring, you win and it’s considered normal,” he said. “Now the question is why the others finished so close.
“Without a doubt, they had more, but I started first and imposed my pace. In any case, tomorrow we have to improve because if we don’t, we’ll finish third.”
Marc Marquez, Ducati Team
Photo by: Ronny Hartmann / AFP via Getty Images
Marquez said he felt “uncomfortable” on the bike on Saturday, with the changes his team had made in the build-up to the sprint not working to his liking.
Although he did not elaborate on the exact issues, he said it would be much harder to stay at the front over the full grand prix distance if they persist.
“I was very uncomfortable throughout the race, I have to understand why. We won, but I was uncomfortable,” he admitted.
“We made changes for the sprint, they don’t seem to have helped, perhaps because there was more temperature. We have to understand what I need for tomorrow over 30 laps, because it will be difficult.
“I was riding at a very consistent pace, but I was floating; I wasn’t riding the way I wanted to. However, it was enough to win. Tomorrow, we have the warm-up to try to take a step forward.”
Marquez has been facing some physical limitations in recent months, having not fully recovered after undergoing surgery on his battered right shoulder in May. However, Sachsenring’s anti-clockwise layout puts less stress on the right side of his body, making the German GP one of the easiest races on the calendar for him.
Asked about his physical condition, Marquez added: “My shoulder here is working well. The elbow is a bit painful, but [does] not [cause] any limitation.”
‘Alex Marquez should have won’
Alex Marquez, Gresini Racing, Marc Marquez, Ducati Team
Photo by: Gold and Goose Photography / Getty Images
The reigning world champion believes his Gresini-mounted brother would have won the sprint race had he not been facing the aftereffects of his crash at the Catalan GP that left him with fractures in his collarbone and vertebra.
“I’m very happy to see my brother again riding as he can ride. Without the incident in Catalunya, today, the leader would be Alex. As we saw in Assen and today, he’s riding in a very good way,” said Marc.
“Last year, he finished second, and this year he’s one of the fastest riders on the grid. But unlucky, he missed three races.”
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– The Autosport.com Team
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