Marquez: When somebody plays with you it is extra motivation

Marc Marquez says his qualifying incident with Valentino Rossi provided him with “extra motivation” to do his fighting on track as he moved closer to capturing the 2019 MotoGP world title with victory at Misano.

The Repsol Honda rider and Rossi had to visit the Stewards following their on-track confrontation during their final laps in qualifying, with both riders avoiding penalties for the incident, but Marquez says it was still central in his mind in the San Marino MotoGP at Rossi’s home race.

Marquez: When somebody plays with you it is extra motivation

Marc Marquez says his qualifying incident with Valentino Rossi provided him with “extra motivation” to do his fighting on track as he moved closer to capturing the 2019 MotoGP world title with victory at Misano.

The Repsol Honda rider and Rossi had to visit the Stewards following their on-track confrontation during their final laps in qualifying, with both riders avoiding penalties for the incident, but Marquez says it was still central in his mind in the San Marino MotoGP at Rossi’s home race.

Marquez beat Petronas Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo in a final-lap tussle which triggered wild celebrations by the 26-year-old as he extends his advantage to 93 points in the riders’ standings.

The reigning MotoGP world champion made it clear his clash with Rossi acted as motivation to win on his rival’s home track while also ending a run of consecutive final-corner defeats - to Andrea Dovizioso in Austria and to Alex Rins in Great Britain respectively.

“I am always fully motivated but of course when somebody plays with you, you have extra motivation and I know that speaking in the microphones here the game is lost but on the track it is another thing,” Marquez said.

“Yesterday, somebody woke me up and the best way to speak is on the track. I know that here with the microphones the battle is lost but on the track that is my real battle.”

Marquez also revealed his Repsol Honda squad took steps to try to calm down their rider heading into the race but Marquez says he was adamant to make his point on track with his first victory since Brno.

“You saw the way I celebrated the victory and first of all I am human and my team tried to keep my down and tried to focus on the championship,” he said. “But the last two races I lost at the last corner which is not the best way for a rider.

“Maybe today the easiest thing would be to follow Fabio for the last laps and with 0.8s behind I can say he was faster than me and I finished in second place. But that is not my way.

“For that reason I pushed until the end and I had enough confidence to try again. I knew that if I lost again people would speak again but I didn’t care about this, I just kept pushing and try.

“That’s the best way to improve the face-to-face [battle], unlucky for me you need to improve in the race and in the race the cameras are there. If you lose everybody sees.”

With a 93-point advantage heading to Aragon, Marquez cannot mathematically seal the title at the next round with a maximum of 150 points still to fight for, but if results go his way he can theoretically seal the title at the following round in Thailand.

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