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Marc Marquez had a good Misano Grand Prix, certainly considering his current situation because a seventh place cannot satisfy the ambitions of an eight-time world champion. And Marc calmly admits it: "I picked up almost 14 seconds from the winner", he underlined.
However, considering that his teammate, Joan Mir, crashed and Bradl and Nakagami arrived respectively 35 and 43 seconds behind in last and penultimate places, a smile came from the lips of Marc, who did not seem tired of playing hide and seek with the press and with his own team about the future.
“It doesn't bother me, nor do I find it funny - he tried to explain - this pressure is part of my job. Of course, at 20 years of age it would probably have destabilized me, but now, under pressure, I give my best."
After all, it's not just us who have tried to bully him by inventing ever new ways to try to make him talk. Even Jorge Lorenzo, his former teammate, tried, only getting a little interlude with a lot of laughter.
When Marquez was serious again, however, he reiterated what he has been saying for weeks.
“I want to see results, facts. If you ask me if with a test rider of Pedrosa's calibre we would be further ahead, I can only answer that Dani is Dani, the best...Ducati and Aprilia, with Pirro and Savadori, however, have riders with perhaps less talent and less speed than Dani, but their motorbikes are fast. Because you can give perfect indications like Pedrosa does, but then it's up to the engineers to decode them. Tomorrow I'll try the bike and sensations aside, it will need to give me the answers I'm looking for. Currently we can't use the medium tyre, we are forced to put on the soft to have traction. With the medium we lose on entry and obviously we also lose on exit. Naturally with the soft you have to ride in a very physical way. I also used it in Austria and Barcelona. The tyre is the right one for us because we were able to do three-quarters of the race very well, but in the last quarter I had to move a lot to control this Honda. Use a lot of force. It's strange to say, because I only finished seventh, but I had a perfect race. I felt fast, at ease. It's true that I used more energy to catch Viñales, because I wanted to catch him and not let him go. But when I caught him, I was pushing my limits. Then I relaxed a bit, I started to do a different pace, because otherwise I wouldn't have finished the race because I had too many fears. In the last four laps I defended as best as I could in the large group behind me. Luca Marini and Fernandez were faster than me, but in the current MotoGP if you defend well it's impossible to overtake. So we managed to get this seventh position, which is not good, but not bad either."
Tomorrow, therefore, Marc Marquez will test the 2024 prototype.
"What you are looking for in a test is more performance. For me, it doesn't matter the to do the lap time – I just want to be faster. If I need to brake earlier and go out faster, or if I need to brake later and go out slower. But just when I try things, of course I want to understand the way to do the lap time, but the way to ride is not the same set-up for a fast lap and for a race distance. But let's see. I want to wait, I don't want to be infected by the comments of other riders. Just I want to try the bike with a clean mentality and give the best comments to the engineers."
So Marquez's ultimatum will be triggered tomorrow. But how much time does Honda still have to convince its captain not to abandon ship. Marc chuckles as he replies.
“I have my timing, I can't say what it is, but it can't be very long. We are already in September, in the end time passes and a rider has a sporting career...".
