Ex-MotoGP champion says Marc Marquez rivals can’t “withstand his pressure”

2020 MotoGP champion Joan Mir says Marc Marquez’s rivals are unable to “withstand his pressure” in this year’s title fight.

Marc Marquez was over 100 points off the championship lead after the Italian grand prix in the spring, but almost five months later he’s accelerating away to a 10th world title and eighth in MotoGP.

The Spaniard took second in the Malaysia Sprint today, finishing one place ahead of Marco Bezzecchi, who now trails the reigning champion by 52 points with four grands prix and three Sprints remaining. 

Jorge Martin is now 19 points behind and will not race tomorrow because of the fractured wrist he sustained in his crash at Phillip Island which happened in the Sprint while he was battling with Marquez, who was only two points behind the Aprilia rider heading into that half-distance race last Saturday.

“I see Marc [Marquez] super-focused on what he has to do, without making any mistakes,” Joan Mir said after the Sprint in Malaysia, as reported by Motorsport.com.

“Personally, I think he has the title very much within reach, because the others are not being able to withstand his pressure.”

As for Mir’s own race, it fell apart with a gamble to change bikes in the hope that it would rain. The rain did arrive, but only on the final lap and after the leaders had crossed the line for the final time.

“Well, I was there in that mid-pack knowing that here is a track that normally nothing happens, it’s like a long train and [the further] back you are the more you struggle with the front to stop and everything,” the Honda HRC rider told MotoGP.com.

“So, I started to see that it was quite black, the sky, and it started to rain in turn four and I said ‘Maybe it’s the time to take a risky decision today because we are not fighting for [anything]’. 

“I took the risk and it didn’t pay off until the last lap that it started to rain, so it was not the right timing. But you never know in these cases.”