Smiling Marc Marquez “fighting at the top” on Gresini race debut
But the eight-time world champion insists he's still "not ready" to fight for a first Ducati podium on Sunday.
A smiling Marc Marquez achieved his goal of "fighting with the top guys" during his Gresini Ducati MotoGP race debut in Qatar on Saturday.
The former Repsol Honda rider claimed his best Qatar MotoGP result since 2019 despite being shuffled back to seventh during a poor opening lap.
The eight-time world champion set the fastest lap of the race as he passed factory riders Jack Miller (KTM), Enea Bastianini (Ducati) and Aleix Espargaro (Aprilia).
That briefly put Marquez in the wheeltracks of Ducati's reigning champion Francesco Bagnaia and a potential podium finish.
But the late-charging Espargaro retaliated and Marquez took the chequered flag in fifth, 1.872s from race winner Jorge Martin (Pramac Ducati).
On a night when the top Honda of former team-mate Joan Mir was only 15th, Marquez's result also justified his decision to leave HRC a year early.
“There was a smile [when I took off the helmet] because I was a fighting with the top guys in Qatar, which is a circuit where normally I was super far in previous years,” Marquez told MotoGP.com.
“I was there fighting with the top guys, and even catching them in one part of the race.
“My biggest mistake was the first lap, where I lost some time, but apart from that I’m happy and also we learned a few things that tomorrow we must improve if we want to do the second half of the race in a good way.”
- Qatar MotoGP: New World Championship standings
- Qatar MotoGP: Results
- Qatar Moto2: Results
- Qatar Moto3: Results
Marquez explained that he doesn’t yet feel comfortable enough to attack at the start.
“With Honda, I was able to attack well in the beginning, but with this [Ducati], still I don't know the reactions of the bike and I wasn't attacking well. Many riders overtook me in the first 2-3 corners. Let's see if tomorrow we can manage better that situation and be more constant.”
Despite finishing just 1.1s from Espargaro and a podium place, Marquez insists he doesn’t expect to be spraying champagne on Sunday.
“No, no, no, we are not ready to fight for the podium,” he said. “There are four or five guys faster than us.
“Today we finished in that top five and, like I said on Thursday, I'm looking for the top six positions, and try to fight, every weekend. Then there will be some days better, some days worse.
“The positive thing is if we manage to do a good second half of the race.”
While Gresini has won the last two Qatar GPs with Bastianini and Fabio di Giannantonio, Casey Stoner is the only rider to have won on his Ducati MotoGP debut, at Qatar in 2007.
Marc's younger brother and team-mate Alex Marquez finished seventh in the Sprint but was very impressive in the second half of the race, with only his final lap outside of the 1m 52s...
