Alex Márquez (Ducati) is struggling: “It’s hard to enjoy it like this!”

After finishing second in the Grand Prix at Misano, Alex Márquez was nowhere near the podium in the sprint race at Spielberg. Starting from fifth on the grid, the runner-up in the World Championship put in a solid performance, but he lacked the pace to keep up with the Aprilia riders Jorge Martin, Marco Bezzecchi and Ai Ogura, as well as KTM ace Pedro Acosta. This became particularly evident when the ‘Martinator’ stormed from eighth on the grid to the front of the field.

“The word ‘suffering’ sums up our weekend,” sighed Alex Márquez in the subsequent media session. “It’s hard to understand certain things. The feeling is similar to the one we had at the start of the season in Thailand – we had the same tyres available there. We need to keep working step by step; so far, it hasn’t been enough to keep up with the Aprilias and Pedro’s KTM.”

Willkommen zum Rennwochenende in Österreich

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Fans

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Musikanten

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Pit Lane

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Fermin Aldeguer

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Marc Márquez

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Enea Bastianini

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Fabio Quartararo

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Fabio di Giannantonio

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Der Start des Rennens

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Marc Márquez & Jorge Martin

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Francesco Bagnaia

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Toprak Razgatlioglu

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Enea Bastianini

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Marco Bezzecchi

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Ai Ogura

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Marc Márquez

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Pol Espargaró

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Fermin Aldeguer

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Jack Miller

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Luca Marini

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Marc Márquez

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Johann Zarco

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Raúl Fernández

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Pedro Acosta

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Alex Márquez

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Diogo Moreira

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Pedro Acosta

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Jorge Martin

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Qualifying - Marc Márquez, Jorge Martin & Pedro Acosta

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Sieger Jorge Martin & Marco Bezzecchi

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Willkommen zum Rennwochenende in Österreich

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During Friday’s qualifying session, the runner-up in the world championship suffered a heavy crash coming out of Turn 1. Why he crashed there remained a mystery to him. So is the necessary confidence also lacking this weekend? “Yes, because the bike sometimes reacts a bit unpredictably. We made a lot of changes for the sprint race – we even swapped the aerodynamics package. We don’t normally do that before the sprint,” Alex assured us. “We used the sprint race to make changes to the set-up and the aerodynamics – it worked better, but it wasn’t good enough. We still have the problem with a lack of grip.”

Alex Márquez also has an explanation as to why the Aprilia is performing so well at the Red Bull Ring this weekend. “It’s down to the tyre carcass and how they (Aprilia) transfer power to the tyres – that works better for them than it does for us,” the Ducati rider is certain. “Our bike performs better in stop-and-go conditions, but for that we need more rear-wheel grip. They (Aprilia) can carry more speed through the apex of the corner. They’re also smoother on the throttle. They’re different bikes, but we’re trying to solve this problem. It would be good to find a solution, because we’ll be using these tyre carcasses in Indonesia as well.”

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How much fun did he have on Saturday? “None,” smiled Alex. “I feel really uncomfortable on the bike. In qualifying, I said to myself: ‘Alex, do you even remember how to ride anymore?’ It’s hard to enjoy it like that. You can only enjoy being on the bike when you’re fast. If someone’s faster than you, then you suffer.”