MotoGP, Marquez: "I was catching fire but I had to stay behind Alex"

Marc Marquez today played a game of cat and mouse at Buriram. Of course, the role of the feline fell to him, while the unfortunate rodent on duty had to be played by his brother Alex. But in reality, the real victim of the day was not Alex as much as the entire MotoGP grid. This is because the superiority displayed by Marc throughout the weekend in Thailand was something that surpasses the result achieved. The pole and the two wins say a lot, but they do not say everything.

Instead, that everything was loudly announced by the last three laps of the race, those few passages in which Marc, after passing Alex on the braking without any problem, trimmed almost two seconds off him, demonstrating what his real pace was. Simply uncatchable, with a superiority that was evident today and that could really herald a fight for the title with only one absolute protagonist. It is certainly early to make such reasoning, but the Marc Marquez admired in Buriram riding the Ducati is undoubtedly embarrassing for all his rivals at the moment.

Marc, a perfect weekend.
"I am living a dream. To start this season as a Ducati rider with a pole position and two wins is something incredible. Then to share the podium in MotoGP with your brother, with all the best riders on the track except Martìn, is incredible. I don't know how my parents can feel. I actually didn't have a great time, I was catching fire but I had to stay behind him because of the tire pressure. I am so happy to start the championship this way."

It seems your style has changed
"This winter I have been working on being cleaner. I am no longer 20 years old but I am 32. I have to manage the energy. It's true that it's not as nice to see, I'm aggressive though in qualifying, where it's needed."

Can you explain what happened with Alex when you got passed?
"In the first laps I felt fast, in a quiet way. Then I saw that the tire pressure was too low and I started pushing on the braking to see if I could get it up on my own, but I realized I couldn't do it that way. So I decided to wait for Alex to pass me, I just wanted to have three laps of margin before passing him again so I could be okay with the tire pressure in the end. I was really fast today, I could handle everything. The team did an incredible job, I always felt great with my bike but before that I always felt great with my team from a human point of view, so I can only thank Ducati. Today I had this little problem, but all in all we are a new couple, we can only get to know each other better and better and improve."

Did you ever think you would have to sweat to pass Alex?
"The only two corners where Alex was fast were turn 6 and 7, but I felt stronger in other places. I needed to stay behind him to keep the temperature and pressure up, so I had to race that way. I know it was going to be tough maybe having to have a duel with Alex, especially because if something happened later we would have had a lot of problems at home, where we eat at the same table. But all jokes aside, we are here to fight but also to do it well, it's not about having to pass your brother or anyone else. When you overtake, you always have to try to do it right, to be fair. It's just that sometimes we are on the limit and you can't avoid making some little mistakes. Today I was lucky, because I had the situation under control, so I had specific points where I could attack Alex safely. In the end I pushed to open a gap so that I could leave Alex to defend himself from Pecco without having to think about defending myself from him."

Maybe this fight with Alex will continue for the rest of the world championship, what do you think?
"Already being here doing first and second in a GP is a dream, of course it would be really nice to experience a title fight with Alex until the end. Bagnaia is the reference in Ducati, as I was in Honda."

Were you hoping to start the world championship like this?
"To start the season like this, with 37 points is something that gives me incredible feelings. I knew I could win here, I had already realized it in Malaysia in testing, there I knew I could fight with the other top riders on equal terms. But I know that these are the races and everything can change very quickly here, so for now I'm having a great time and I hope to keep it up throughout the season."

When you passed Alex, it still felt like you were pushing a little bit. Or did you have everything under control?
"During a Grand Prix you can always manage the situation, but there are always individual moments when you have to take risks. Today when I passed Alex I had a slight front lock, but I had to take risks and that's when you have to avoid mistakes."

On the podium with your brother, with a one-two punch. A hard emotion to explain, can you try?
"From the point of view of emotion, it's crazy. There is nothing better than MotoGP, we are at the top of the sport here. We are obviously also first and second in the world championship, and it's clear that it's only the first race, but this is an incredible emotion. When I was talking to Spanish TV before, I couldn't talk normally."

When did you realize you had to change strategy in the race?
"My strategy was always clear in my head, I wanted to start well and try to get away because I knew that in the first laps I would maybe have to defend myself from Pecco and Alex. When I understood the tire pressure thing, I had to change strategy and after I started counting the laps, I realized I was on the limit. Being behind Alex was not easy, but today I had the pace to get around these problems. We have to figure out why I had this little pressure problem. Maybe I changed my riding style, taking some force off the front end. I think it's all experience for the future."

You lead the world championship in the first race. That hasn't happened since 2014.
"When you jump on a competitive bike, you have to be ready. Last year was a big change for me, I found the perfect team in Gresini, but when I had the chance to get a Ducati factory, I didn't think much about it, because I knew I would have more in terms of support. I felt good right away in Barcelona, but also on the other tracks."

On Social they started joking that if you also had another brother maybe you could monopolize the podium.
"I don't think I have any other brothers around, I certainly don't! Joking aside, we can't ask for more, for me the secret of my family is passion. We've always played with motorcycles out of passion, we were lucky because of the support we had as kids. We are having a lot of fun, and I hope my family is having fun too."

Photocredit@PhotoMilagro/Soldano

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