Marc Marquez believes his qualifying must “improve” to fight for the 2024 MotoGP title after recovering from 14th to a double podium finish at the Catalan Grand Prix.
In a repeat of the French Grand Prix two weeks ago, the Spaniard fell short in Q1 and started 13th on the grid before following it up with two second-placed finishes.
Marquez currently lies third in the standings with only two points separating himself and Francesco Bagnaia in second, with a gap of 41 points leader Jorge Martin.
Marquez knows he is a “contender” for the championship, but he states the importance of securing grid position so he doesn’t have to fight his way up in both races.
“Of course, we are a contender. Why? Because we are third in the championship after six races already,” Marquez said.
“But, we are third. And it’s our real position because there are two guys who are a bit faster.
“If we want to fight with them especially, we need to improve the qualifying.
“I know that being on the podium here in Montmelo is super special and super important because it’s one of those circuits that I hate.
“But apart from that, when I say it’s a difficult circuit for me I never give up and I try to do double work to work better.”
Post-race Marquez disclosed his thoughts on his qualifying results in the last couple of races, stating that he is “not proud” of his performances.
“I’m not proud about it, especially because if you make that comeback, it means that it’s coming from some mistakes,” he said.
“But apart from that, starting from that 14th position, I feel like it forced me to start on that soft rear option.
“I don’t know if it was better or worse, but in the end, I had that extra grip in the first laps to overtake the riders and in the end it was difficult, but even like this I caught the Aprilia guys on the medium and I had something more.”
Marquez made the ambitious move to gamble on the Soft rear tyre but he took into account the “guarantees” that would mean he would be able to go the distance if he managed it precisely.
“I said to my team, ‘give me the Medium from the warm-up to do the sighting lap, if I don’t have a good feeling I will put on the Soft’,” he added.
“On that sighting lap, the feeling was not good and then I put the Soft on.
“We know and we had some guarantees and we analysed that the soft rear was on the limit, but was able to finish the race. We managed in a good way.
“In the end, I suffered a lot to keep Aleix behind, but also he was suffering with that Medium.”
