A heavy defeat for Ducati: Marc Marquez speaks of a desired result

The MotoGP Grand Prix in Mandalika ended with Marc Márquez finishing sixth and losing the championship lead to Aprilia rider Jorge Martín. Following his victory in Saturday’s sprint race, the Ducati factory rider was pipped to the post on Sunday by the four Aprilia riders and KTM rider Pedro Acosta. Nevertheless, he left Indonesia feeling that he had successfully navigated a difficult weekend.

Whilst Marco Bezzecchi won ahead of Raul Fernandez, Martin and Ai Ogura, Marquez was the best-placed Ducati rider in sixth. In his assessment, however, he focused on the weekend as a whole.

“It’s easy to explain: if you’d told me on Thursday that we’d be just three points behind Bezzecchi over the whole weekend and score the same number of points as Martin, that would have been a dream. And that’s exactly what we achieved,” the world champion summarised.

Solid points on Aprilia’s home turf

For Marquez, Mandalika is one of the toughest challenges on the calendar. That made his Sprint victory all the more valuable, as it had temporarily put him at the top of the World Championship standings on Saturday. “We had a great weekend at what is our worst track. We managed to be consistent throughout the whole weekend. It’s true that we really struggled in the race, especially in the second half. But I’m simply happy with how the weekend turned out.”

His Grand Prix was marked by increasing difficulties. When asked whether the temperature of the front tyre had been a problem, Márquez expressly denied it. Instead, he cited the rear tyre as the decisive factor. “The rear tyre deteriorated massively, but the front tyre was perfect. It’s true that I eased off a bit in Turn 10, but that was part of my strategy. I didn’t want to take any risks, as there were still twelve laps to go.”

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Marquez realised that he wouldn’t be able to hold off several of his pursuers over the full distance. Rather than exhausting himself in battles, he accepted the loss of position. “I could gauge the pace and knew that Acosta and Ogura would overtake me anyway. Perhaps even ‘Diggia’, but ‘Diggia’ faded towards the end. My strategy was not to take any extra risks.”

No risks: Márquez deliberately held back

It was particularly noticeable when braking for Turn 10 just how much ground Marquez was losing to his rivals. He didn’t cite a technical problem as the reason for this. He simply lacked the confidence to brake late there consistently. “I simply didn’t brake late. I lacked the confidence. In practice, I was able to brake late on individual laps. But today I felt there was more to lose than to gain.”

Marquez didn’t attribute his deficit to his physical condition or the heat either. The decisive factor for him was the pace he could maintain over 27 laps. Individual fast laps were possible, but keeping up with Martin consistently was not. “I pushed on a few laps and felt I could ride at roughly the same pace as Martin. But for ten laps, like in yesterday’s sprint, not for 27. It’s true that I have to ride differently and adapt to a lot of things. Today I simply tried to maintain a consistent pace.”

Willkommen zum Rennen in Mandalika

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Pedro Acosta

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Alex Márquez

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Marco Bezzecchi

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Marc Márquez

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Start des Rennens

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Jorge Martin

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Ai Ogura und Pedro Acosta

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Luca Marini

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Raúl Fernández

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Marco Bezzecchi

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Quartararo und Binder

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Ai Ogura und Marc Márquez

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Enea Bastianini

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Alex Márquez und Fabio Di Giannantonio

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Marc Márquez und Pedro Acosta

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Marco Bezzecchi gewinnt das Rennen

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Sieger Marco Bezzecchi

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Fernández, Bezzecchi, Martin

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Sieger Marco Bezzecchi

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Willkommen zum Rennen in Mandalika

© Gold & Goose

Acosta’s race also made it harder to assess the situation. The KTM rider had to drop back at times due to his tyre pressure and then make up the ground again. “Acosta was playing games with us because he had a tyre pressure problem. It was a good idea to save some energy for the final stages of the race. The only rider I thought I could battle with was ‘Diggia’, because we have the same bike.”

Marquez’s lead in the World Championship thus lasted just one day. Nevertheless, his overall performance was positive: on a circuit where Ducati could do little against Aprilia on Sunday, he took the sprint victory and scored the same number of points as Martin across both races.