Marc Marquez accepts he’s a MotoGP title challenger now, but issues a warning

Marc Marquez admits he’s a MotoGP title challenger now after his victory at the Czech Grand Prix, but has warned that he needs to “survive” next weekend at Assen first.

The Ducati rider was 102 points behind Aprilia’s Marco Bezzecchi after the Italian Grand Prix, having missed the French Grand Prix and the entirety of the Barcelona weekend to have surgery on a pre-existing shoulder issue.

But in the space of two rounds, Marc Marquez has whittled that deficit down to just 40 points after scoring back-to-back wins at Balaton Park and Brno.

He was helped greatly by Bezzecchi being banned from Sunday at Brno following an altercation with a marshal on Saturday afternoon.

Ahead of the Brno round, Marquez said he would have settled for being 10s from the win, given his physical condition.

Asked if he is now a genuine title challenger, he said: “Yes. I cannot say not.

“I was over [out of contention], I was completely over in Mugello, and especially before Mugello when I was in the hospital.

“In that moment, when you lose two races, I was over. But I don’t know why, now I’m behind the top guy, just 40 points.

“I need to keep calm; I need to survive in Assen especially because it’s a race track that even when I’m fit I’m struggling at.

“So, there I need to be calm and try to understand if in Sachsenring, and after the summer break, we can change to attack mode.”

“Totally unexpected” win

Marquez struggled across the Brno weekend with his fitness, owing to the layout taking a toll on his recovering right shoulder.

He called his victory “totally unexpected” and felt a podium was “a very optimistic” goal.

“This one was unexpected, totally unexpected,” he said.

“I mean, today, the target - a very optimistic target - was the podium. But I knew that on the paper I was fourth on the race pace, together with Pecco very close.

“But it looked like [Fabio] Di Giannantonio and [Ai] Ogura were faster than us.

“But we pushed from the beginning, we were third on the first lap, and then especially when I was behind Pecco I saw my pace was good, but I was stuck behind him; I was not able to overtake.

“When I did it, I was able to be even faster. I used the rear tyre too much in the beginning to overtake Pecco, but even like this I was able to be fast.”

Marquez came from fourth on the grid to take the lead on lap 16 of 21, but faced intense pressure from Trackhouse Aprilia’s Ogura in the closing stages.

“I had zero confidence with Ogura behind. I did a small mistake in the exit of Turn 12 and I said, ‘I don’t know where he is’, and I said, ‘Ok, it doesn’t matter how we attack’. I went in [to Turn 13] a bit fast, but also I opened a lot of gas, because I saw in Moto2 the overtakes in the last chicane, and I said, ‘Ok, this cannot happen to me’.

“And then just I opened more gas and I lost the rear, but enough to cross the line in first position.”