Marc Marquez explains why he “hates” MotoGP Sprint races

Victory in the Spanish MotoGP Sprint made it five from five to start the season for Marc Marquez, who says he “hates” the Saturday races.

A fifth successive victory in MotoGP’s half-distance Saturday races was enough for the Ducati Lenovo Team rider to take another record, beating Jorge Martin’s previous benchmark of four successive Sprint wins set in 2023.

Marquez, aware of the importance of Sunday, said - light-heartedly - that feels some frustration towards the Sprint wins as he has to keep his mentality in-check before the full-distance race.

“Today was not easy, especially with this warm temperature that changed a lot the feeling, but I already expected it,” Marquez said in his post-race podium interview.

“I was struggling a bit in the end but I was controlling.

“I always say the same on Saturday: I hate the Sprint race because I’m super-happy but I want to control my emotions because [Sunday] is the most important day. But, in front of this crowd, you have this extra power.”

Marquez’s race began with a short-lived battle with Fabio Quartararo, who qualified on pole position and led the opening lap. The Monster Energy Yamaha rider crashed out on the second lap at turn six, though, as Marquez was making his move to the front, and the championship leader’s race was relatively comfortable from there.

“As I did in the other Sprint races, I tried to push in the beginning and [then] control in the second part of the race,” he told MotoGP.com.

“When I had that second, second-and-a-half, I tried to control that distance and it was enough.”

Looking to Sunday’s Grand Prix, Marquez was expecting Quartararo, as well as Alex Marquez and Francesco Bagnaia who joined him on the Sprint podium, to be contending again.

“For sure, it looks like Pecco [Francesco Bagnaia] on Sundays is a bit stronger, so let’s see,” he said.

“But not only Pecco, also Alex [Marquez], also Fabio [Quartararo], will be super-strong. But Pecco won the last three Sundays here, so I expect a very strong Pecco – let’s see if we can control in a good way.”