Marquez: Yamaha had something more in second part of the season

Marc Marquez is keeping an eye on Yamaha’s progress going into 2020 having seen its riders become his biggest rivals over the course of the second half of the current MotoGP campaign.

Having seen Maverick Vinales end his run of five consecutive race wins at Sepang, Marquez is starting to turn attention towards early 2020 preparations along with battling for the MotoGP teams’ world title this season with Repsol Honda just two points behind Ducati going into the final round.

Despite Marquez’s dominance across this season, the eight-time world champion has kept a close eye on Yamaha’s improvements having seen both Vinales and Fabio Quartararo consistently be his nearest challenger in recent races.

While Marquez isn’t ruling out any of his rivals for a 2020 title attack, he is eager to assess how the Iwata factory fares over the winter and pre-season testing after showing signs of a resurgence.

“In terms of speed it looks like Yamaha who has something more over this second part of the season,” Marquez said. “In terms of consistency Andrea is always there, he is very consistent.

“There will be strong opponents, we start from zero points at the first race so no favourites as everybody is equal. But this second part of the season has been different, Yamaha has been very, very strong from the beginning but in the end if we take just the second part of the season I have taken more points than them so in the end it was more difficult but same consistency.

“We suffered at some races but when we suffer we finish in second place. It is time to work, time to improve and in the winter we will see. Our opponents will answer for us to see if we will be in the correct shape or not.”

Yamaha has moved to within one point of Ducati in the fight for second place in the MotoGP world constructors’ championship behind Honda’s domination spearheaded by Marquez as the top Honda rider in 17 out of 18 races this season.

Before the Valencia finale next week, Marquez heads back to his hometown Cervera along with his brother Alex Marquez to host a joint celebration having seen his sibling wrap up the Moto2 world title in Sepang.

“We will celebrate in a good way tonight and celebrate next weekend in Cervera in our hometown,” he said. “In Valencia we will enjoy it [too].

“We have a lot of pressure during all the season and so in Valencia we will try to just enjoy the race, enjoy the weekend, in front of our fans and we will see. It will be a great and incredible weekend.”