Álex Márquez mightn’t do anything to contain Johann Zarco at the Portuguese GP, but his fifth place, his best result since 2021, and his first weekend in the Gresini team’s Ducati remain very encouraging.
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The bet ofAlex Marquez already seems successful. After two very difficult seasons on the Honda of team LCRthe Catalan gained the confidence of Ducati and Gresini, the team that allowed Aeneas Bastianini to achieve three successes last year, and as soon as he signed, he said he was aware that this opportunity was perhaps his last chance in MotoGP. The winter tests were encouraging and the Portuguese GP confirmed this first impression.
Leader of the first session of the weekend and the warm-up, the youngest of the Márquez however failed to reach Q2. His sprint race, marked by contact with Maverick Vinales, only saw him take ninth place but on Sunday he quickly rose from 12th to fourth place, which he fought for a long time once morest the KTM riders. He occupied this position a few bends from the finish before bearing the brunt of the attack on Johann Zarco on the very last bend.
A handsome player, he congratulated the Frenchman for his maneuver and was delighted with his fifth place finish. “It’s better to be fifth than on the ground”summarized the Catalan on the official MotoGP website. “I defended the position with everything I had. Ten laps from the end I was totally on the limit, I was in a lot of pain, you saw it in the pictures.”
“Johann was there. I handled things quite smartly, ITook turn 15 as it should but it was just a tiny bit faster and I mightn’t close the door. There was only one meter. He was very smart and very good at overtaking. I tried to defend myself but I was on the outside and it was wasting time. I wanted to pass him on the home stretch but it was very difficult.”
“I gave 100% from start to finish. At one point, I dreamed a bit of the podium because I saw it was possible, but I was at the limit at the end. We have to keep working, progress, and we have clear ideas.”
Alex Marquez
In a single Grand Prix in 2023, Álex Márquez has already achieved a better result than in the whole of 2022, having never done better than seventh last year. At the Canal+ microphone, the Gresini pilot admitted to feeling “much better” on the Ducati, the benchmark machine on the board, than on the restive Honda: “Everything is easier, to fight with the others, to defend my place, to be there. Ten laps from the end, I was a bit on the limit but I was able to defend myself and I’m happy.”
The weekend in Portimão thus allowed us to see Álex Márquez transformed and satisfied with the performance, but not yet at his best level since he sees avenues for improvement for the next races: “It was my first weekend with Ducati and Gresini, I really enjoyed it. We have clear ideas, we learned a lot because during a test there is a lot of grip and that “It’s hard to draw conclusions. It was a really positive weekend, we had two good races, the sprint and the classic. We have a lot of information to improve.”
“I’m having a lot of fun”he added. “It’s also one of my favorite circuits and I had a lot of fun. Now we’re going to Argentina so I’m going to try to be very focused, have the same mentality and take good points. , which is always important for the championship.”