During the press conference, the Spaniard covered many subjects, from the Honda, to what he expects from the Dutch GP, and also Valentino Rossi and his new MotoGP team
25.06.2021 16:33
Marc Marquez arrives in Assen having won at the Sachsenring. But in the press conference, the Honda rider is realistic and doesn’t know whether he can reach the podium in Holland too. The goal? To give it his all and aim for the top ten.
“More wins will come in time”
“The win - says Marc - was very important of course, one of the most important. With this result, I’ve been able to put one of the toughest moments of my career behind me. So the victory gives us extra motivation, not just me, but also Honda, which hadn’t won for a while. It was important to score a win before the summer break. We’ll try to be fast at this track too and then we'll continue with our training over the summer. Let’s see whether I can ride better at Assen than I did at Mugello and Montmeló”.
But is Marc ready for a race like that in Germany, or rather is he ready to suffer a little? “I’m ready to suffer – he smiles – but if I want to suffer, I risk crashing as I did at Montmeló. At the Sachsenring I rode gently and precisely. I know the track well and there are many left-hand turns. Here you can choose to suffer for a few laps but not the whole time. The important thing is that the victory has given us a mental boost, we know we can do it again but all in good time”.
“If Rossi rides a Ducati it would be great”
It seems the Assen event may also bring rain, a good thing for the Honda rider? “If there are issues, a rider might hope for rain - he adds – rain on Sunday mixes things up but it doesn’t alter the overall championship result. We’ll see how the weekend goes. It’ll be important to take steps forward with respect to Mugello and Montmeló, I’m aiming for top ten”.
With the summer break set to last all of July, Marquez can use the time to fully recover from his injury: “The summer break is important. My arm and particularly my shoulder feel the pressure when we’re working so much. It’s a strange condition, during the Montmeló test I made many laps, but if I make laps and then stop I can do a lot, but after 30 consecutive laps my performance drops the day after. I feel the damp and changes in the weather too, my doctor says it’s normal”.
In light of today’s announcement about Valentino Rossi’s VR46 team joining forces with Ducati, Marc is asked whether he sees Rossi riding the Desmosedici: “With Vale anything is possible. He’s 42 but still racing, if he carries on with another team it’s a good thing for MotoGP”.
Re the Honda issues
Marc is also asked about the Honda, which appears to be one of the trickiest bikes to ride right now: “Last year I didn’t race and Honda went with some new solutions. Performance wasn’t bad but what we’ve tried to do is understand and then I’ve asked what they did at the various tracks. We’ve analysed the various details and I decided I wanted to go back to something I knew, so to 2019. Now, race after race, we’re trying the new elements others are using and I’m trying to adapt them to my riding style”.
Lastly, and again in reference to the Honda, Marquez responded to what Pol Espargaró said, or rather that he’ll try to ‘copy’ Marc’s bike: “We’re trying to find a base on which to work. It was hard for me at first because I was riding in a strange way, but then as of Mugello I started to ride like I used to and now all the riders are looking for a set-up similar to mine. But the Sachsenring is the Sachsenring and all the other races will be different. Pol struggles to find speed and be consistent, it’s a difficult time. It doesn’t all vanish after the Sachsenring, we got a good result but now we need to keep trying and see if the second part of the season goes better”.
Translated by Heather Watson
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