Marc Marquez told he “can’t afford” to be hit with Pecco Bagnaia’s big problem

Marc Marquez must avoid the problem which has blighted Pecco Bagnaia, he has been warned.

The championship battle is alive with Alex Marquez topping the MotoGP standings before racing gets underway this weekend at Le Mans.

Marc Marquez is one point shy of his brother, owing to two grand prix crashes in Texas and Jerez.

The most recent incident at Jerez is a reminder to Marquez that he cannot get sucked into the uphill battle that factory Ducati teammate Bagnaia has fought all year.

'When you put Marc Marquez in traffic...'

“It will focus the mind for Marquez,” Dorna reporter Louis Suddaby said in Le Mans.

“He said the crash in Jerez wasn’t down to a lack of concentration, he was just pushing too hard.

“He knows that he cannot afford to get beaten up in the early laps, and find bikes between himself and the leader of the race.

“He was down in third or fourth place. That incredible first-lap battle with Pecco Bagnaia, who laid a few punches on him. We saw contact between them. It was exhilarating.

“But when you put Marquez in traffic, he’s then got to ride behind someone else. He’s got the hot air coming off the bike in front, which Pecco said is the root of his problems.

“Pecco said ‘now Marc knows how I feel’.

“Marc will be even more keen to take pole position, get to the front of the race in the sprint and on Sunday if it’s dry, and not have any bikes ahead of him which is where his problems came in Jerez.”

Marc Marquez to 'ride within himself?'

Jack Appleyard said: “At no point in Jerez did he do any laps behind another rider, to get an understanding of how the bike behaviour changed.

“He may do some laps - four, five or six - behind another rider to understand how his bike behaves.”

Appleyard added: “Two types of crashes we’ve seen; the one in Austin, he held his hands up. It was a lack of concentration, the win was coming to him, it was too easy.

“In Jerez, he spoke after the test. He’d had 24 hours to contemplate it, and said he was pushing beyond his limit.

“Do we now see Marc ride within himself on Sunday? He knows that, if he wants to win this championship, he can’t be crashing out as frequently as he has been.”

The only two grands prix that Marquez has failed to win has been when he crashed.

Bagnaia and Alex Marquez profited from those incidents, enabling them to keep the title battle going.