Marc Marquez’s first MotoGP outing on a Ducati went about as well as it could have.
That might not seem like much when taken at face value. Fifth in the sprint and fourth in the grand prix last weekend under the floodlights of the Losail International Circuit are not perhaps the results many were hoping for when the six-time MotoGP champion jumped on the all-conquering Ducati.
But let’s put that into a bit of context. For 11 years, Marquez rode the RC213V Honda. And as such, his riding style is wholly developed around it. On the Ducati, he’s had just nine days of riding. The UK education system may have failed me on maths somewhat when I was in school, but even I know that fourth after just nine days on a completely different motorcycle is not too shabby.
“We analysed with the team a lot of things to try to manage the start, it was better today,” Marquez said after the Qatar GP. “So, this helped the race a lot. Then I was able to manage well the tyres. The thing was yesterday I struggled and today most of the riders were managing the rear, but I was managing the front more than the rear because every year with the other bike I was struggling a bit with the front tyre in this race track.
“Anyway, I need to improve my riding style in some points because still I’m not riding well. But today the race was constant, solid. I did my attack in the last eight laps, and when I did the attack, it was when I started to push more with the front and I finished the front tyre, and the last two laps I gave up because I saw the chance to crash and the chance to take two more points, three more points… I preferred to finish fourth and wait for two weeks in Portimao.”
All-out glory was something Marquez never considered for his Ducati debut. That much was made clear all the way back in October of last year when news of his move to Gresini Racing was made official. This exercise has always been about discovering if he can still be the rider he used to be after four years in the wilderness at Honda with numerous injury woes and a bike that now currently races in its own little “Japanese Cup” – as Joan Mir called it – with Yamaha at the outer reaches of the points.
After years in which Honda was well off the pace, it’s only natural that Marquez has had plenty of adaption to do on the Ducati
Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
What was clear throughout the Qatar weekend was that the ‘old’ Marc…
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