Marc Marquez achieves “dream” Indonesian GP result

Marc Marquez says his sixth-place finish at the Indonesian Grand Prix and limited damage to his MotoGP points position was “a dream” he would have signed for pre-weekend.

Mandalika is the seven-time world champion’s worst circuit on the calendar, having failed to finish a grand prix at the venue every year since 2022.

That trend was broken on Sunday at the Indonesian Grand Prix, after he finished sixth on his factory Ducati following a sprint victory on Saturday.

With Aprilia’s Jorge Martin third, Marc Marquez leaves Indonesia as he began the weekend, two points down from the championship lead.

“So, it’s easy to explain,” Marquez told the media, including Crash, on Sunday.

“On Thursday, if you said to me, over the whole weekend, I’d lost just three points to [Marco] Bezzecchi and equal Martin, it was a dream.

“And we achieved it, in the worst circuit for us.

“We did a great weekend, we were able to be consistent during the whole weekend.

“It’s true in the race we struggled a lot, especially in the second part. But I’m just happy how the weekend ends.”

‘Sometimes others are faster… and I just have to accept that’

Marquez says he suffered “a massive drop” in grip from his rear tyre, while admitting he “gave up a bit” in the hard braking of Turn 10 to avoid risk having been passed several times there.

“The rear was a massive drop,” he added.

“The front was perfect. It’s true that in Turn 10 I gave up a bit, but that was my strategy.

“No risk, because with 12 laps to go, because I felt the pace, I knew that [Pedro] Acosta and [Ai] Ogura would overtake me anyway, and even maybe [Fabio] Di Giannantonio - though DiGia, in the end, gave up.

“But it was my strategy to not take extra risk.

“I was not braking late, no confidence. I was able to brake late [at Turn 10] in some single laps in the practices. But today I feel like there was more to lose than to gain.”

Marquez ended the race over 10 seconds behind race winner Bezzecchi and didn’t have pace enough to fight for the podium.

But he says he “must accept” that others will be faster than him “if I want to fight for the championship”.

“I pushed some laps, and I felt like some laps I was able to keep more or less the same pace as Martin, but for 10 laps, like yesterday in the sprint - not for 27 laps.

“It’s true that I need to ride in another way, I need to adapt to many things.

“And today I was just trying to keep the constant pace.

“With 12 to go, I felt that Acosta was playing with us because he had tyre pressure problems.

“Ogura had a very strong last part of the race, and the only one I was able to fight with him was DiGia because we have the same bike.

“But the other riders were faster than me. But sometimes you must accept this and it’s what I must do if I want to fight for the championship.”