Alex Marquez needs to stop ‘putting everything in the rubbish’ again in Catalan MotoGP

Gresini’s Alex Marquez says he “can’t make mistakes in the key moments of the weekend” at the MotoGP Catalan Grand Prix after “putting everything in the rubbish” recently.

This weekend could see Marc Marquez lift himself into a points position to mathematically win the world championship next time out at the San Marino Grand Prix.

To do so, he has to leave Barcelona 185 points clear of Alex Marquez, which would mean extending his lead by just 10 across both races.

The younger Marquez brother has struggled of late, suffering a double non-score at Brno, 10th in the Austrian Grand Prix due to a long lap penalty, and an eighth and 14th in Hungary.

Now at a circuit where he is expected to be strong, Alex Marquez says he must be “focused” at the right moments.

“We need to flow and we can’t make mistakes in the key moments of the weekend,” he told the official MotoGP website after ending Friday at Barcelona third.

“I think this is the thing that we did in the last weekends and we put everything in the rubbish a little bit.

“But, we have to be really clear, we need to be there, we need to be focused.

“I think on the last two weekends we were not really focused on the key moments of the weekend, which is everything in MotoGP, but especially the qualy.

“But for the rest, I think the speed was still there. So, at a track that I like in Catalunya, we need to extract the potential.”

Alex Marquez has “margin” to improve after Friday practice

Reviewing his Friday at Barcelona, Alex Marquez says he is feeling strong on the GP24 but notes there is work to be done to improve the bike’s turning in fast corners.

“Quite good, quite happy,” he said.

“I think we did a really good job from the morning. I felt really good on the bike and we were able to be fast, to be constant, but especially still I’m not really happy about our set-up.

“Still there are some problems there to fix, especially on the front part of the bike, which is not turning as I want on the fast corners.

“So, it’s something that I’m happy because still we have some margin to improve and this is something really positive.

“But, for the other part, from my side, I rode in a really good way, I felt really good on the bike, how I managed things, and it gives me a lot of confidence for the weekend.”