“I don’t understand” - Marc Marquez reacts to current MotoGP title battle

Marc Marquez admits “I don’t understand anything” about the current MotoGP title battle, after victory at the German Grand Prix put him just 18 points from the lead.

The Ducati rider was 102 points adrift after the Italian Grand Prix, having struggled in the opening rounds with an ongoing shoulder injury, as well as missing Sunday at the French Grand Prix and the entire Barcelona round.

But wins in Hungary, Czechia and Germany, coinciding with Marco Bezzecchi’s run of four successive Sunday non-scores, has brought Marc Marquez firmly into title contention.

After dominating Sunday’s German Grand Prix, Marquez is now third in the standings and 18 points from leader Jorge Martin.

“I don’t understand anything. I said already in the last race,” Marquez commented after the German GP.

“But we are trying to attack where I feel OK and trying to survive when we have difficult tracks.

“It’s true that if we want to fight for the championship, I need to improve some points - the right arm. It’s the only point I need to improve.

“So, this summer break, I will take a rest of course, because on the mental side I need it.

“But I need to work very hard on the right arm, especially on the weak points, because there are some points where I’m just riding the bike; I’m on the bike, but I cannot play with my body. So, it’s there where I want to work.”

He added: “I keep saying the same: if I can do a step this summer break on my arm, which I don’t know if I can do or not.

“But I will try to work hard just to wake up some muscles that are sleeping.

“And from that point, if we can do it, then we can try to fight for the championship in this second part of the season.

“If not, try to understand what we can do every weekend.”

“I just tried to control”

Marquez led every lap from pole position on Sunday at the Sachsenring, pulling a gap of over two seconds at one stage before easing off to the chequered flag.

The 33-year-old suggests he still had pace in reserve if he needed it, though doesn’t know how much.

“I don’t know because it’s something that I was riding smooth, but sometimes you ride even more and you are slower,” he said.

“When somebody is pushing you, sometimes you take out something from inside that you didn’t expect.

“So, today, when I got that 1.5s, 2s [gap] I just tried to control. But it’s true that in those last laps it was not necessary to use this extra - I would not say extra potential, but extra risk.”