Marquez: One of my best moments with Honda

Five-time MotoGP world champion Marc Marquez feels he is in ‘one of the best moments’ of his career with Honda.

The Spaniard clinched the premier class crown in the previous round at the Twin Ring circuit at Motegi in Japan, where nearest rival Andrea Dovizioso slid out on the penultimate lap.

Following his title triumph – his seventh world championship in all – HRC President Yoshishige Nomura said he wanted Marquez to be a Honda rider for life.

At the pre-Phillip Island press conference on Thursday, Marquez responded: “We can speak about it, no problem! I feel really good with Honda, with HRC and when everything goes well this is important.

“Right now, we are in Honda, we are in one of our best moments together with the factory and each weekend we can show our potential on the track. I’m feeling good, so when everything is fine, (we need to) keep on the same way.”

The 25-year-old has had little time to celebrate and Marquez says he is fully committed to the task in hand this weekend, when his experience of past mistakes in the wake of his title successes in 2014 and 2015 has given him added focus.

“Of course I’m very happy and you feel different now, but I don’t have a lot of time to celebrate. Of course, we celebrate a lot with the team but on Monday morning, 9am, I was in the HRC factory to say hello to all the engineers,” he said.

“We will celebrate but now it is time to be concentrated here in Phillip Island and maybe after Malaysia we will have time to celebrate with friends and with all the team in Valencia.

“The tactic is to try to concentrate on myself. I won in 2014 in Motegi and I arrive here and I felt like I could do everything, but then I crashed in the race,” Marquez added.

“In 2015, I started to feel different but again I crashed in the race and it is something that I need to control all this weekend. It is a circuit that I like, that I love, but I will approach in the same way to start for the 2019 season – to try to be concentrated, to be focused, and try new things for next year.”