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With just one weekend to go before the end of the season, third in the overall riders championship with a one-point lead over Enea Bastianini, Marc Marquez is satisfied. After the critical issues he encountered starting in 2020 with the Jerez de La Frontera fall, if nothing else, 2024 was encouraging. Good at making the most of Gresini Racing's year-old Ducati, the Spanish rider has earned his promotion to the factory team and promises good things for 2025.
Going back in his mind to that injury, which amounted to a major setback in a career that had been glorious up to then, the rider from Cervera confessed to TNT Sports: "The mental aspect was the hardest to deal with. When you get hurt, the first and second years aren't a problem but, once recovery is over and you still don't feel good, the self-doubt begins."
You still learn something from pain. "When you're doing well, you forget about the difficulties but, if you're going through a dark period, you give much more importance to the good moments. From one second to the next, I went from my best days to a nightmare. Now, however, I'm smiling again, and that's more important than a world championship."
With the year now drawing to a close, the eight-time world champion is back to winning. "I've been waiting for those feelings for a long time. In 2014, I was able to get ten wins in a row. Before the accident, first place was normal and second place represented defeat. Actually, it's not true that winning is the norm because only one can do it. The events also changed my perception of sports and racing," he continued in his reflection.
Having studied the Desmosedici, it was time to further pogress. "When I came to Gresini, I had a plan, which was to create an opportunity for myself to go to a factory team with the best bike on the lot. And that's Ducati Lenovo. But to make it, I had to prove that I was fast, because what matters is the present not the past," he acknowledged.
And next year will be a battle with Bagnaia in the garage. "If you want to win, you have to have the useful means to be able to do so, then you have to fight. I'm aware that I'll have a partner who's a world champion, who's been riding a Ducati for six years, and knows all its secrets," he finally pointed out.
