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Honda rookie Alex Marquez insists that regular MotoGP podium visits are “not our real potential” despite scoring his second-successive rostrum finish with second at the Aragon Grand Prix.
Marquez took his maiden podium in the wet conditions of last week’s French GP and registered his second on Sunday at Aragon after chasing down Alex Rins for victory in dry conditions.
The Honda rider admitted on Saturday at Aragon after qualifying a season’s-best 11th that aiming for a repeat of his Le Mans success was not a “real target” – but then proved to be among the fastest on track in the race.
Marquez believes he must focus on his “rookie potential” of trying to consistently finish in the top eight in the remaining rounds.
“It means a bonus,” Marquez quipped when asked of the significance of another podium finish. “Joking aside, it’s true that it’s not two dry podiums. It was one wet one at Le Mans which nobody expected because we were starting from 18th. But here it’s a dry podium, not coming because many riders crashed.
“We were the second-fastest on track, recovering a lot of positions. So, it means that we are making our job in the best way that we can. We are improving day by day, we will not give up, we will try to still improve to the end of the season.
“Now I will focus 110 percent in the next weekend because I think we have a good chance to improve and take some profit. But I think also we need to see if this potential we have here we can also show in Valencia and Portimao.
“It will be a good test for us for next year to try to be fast from the beginning. But my target is not to be on the podium every weekend because it’s not our real potential. Our real potential is like a rookie one, trying to be more regular in the top eight and try to be [more consistent] and try to build up our confidence a little bit more.”
Marquez was a fixture in the top eight for most of the Aragon GP practices, and admits he felt more “free” on his bike this weekend. The Honda rider made two mistakes late on while chasing Rins, which he feels “cost me the chance” to fight for his first win.
“I knew before the race in the last laps I was one of the better riders at managing the tyres, with the life of the rear tyres,” he added. “So I wait until the end to be smart, trying to be really smooth in all the ways. Then two laps from the end I did two mistakes, in the last corner and the first corner that cost me the chance to try to fight for the victory with Rins. I lost some tenths there.
“Then in the last lap I tried again hard to expect some mistake from Rins but he was really fast also in the last lap. So, really happy; [a] really important podium.”
Add a +19 for Marquez, even better than Binder victoryrscsr wrote: ↑14 Oct 2020, 21:06In the end of the day, no one expects anything from rookies, but to improve from race to race. And to be honest he does show some improvement. When you compare someone, who is more likely to find in the second half of the grid, I think you should look at the position from the rear, and who he finished in front of. To account for crashes or technical issues of the riders in the front. Finishing 10th when 13 riders finish is not good, but 10th when everyone finishes is good, especially for a rookie.Andres125sx wrote: ↑14 Oct 2020, 20:38Bold claim mate!
A 2nd in his rookie season is remarkable. And he did it in the wet (his very first wet race with a MotoGP bike?) what IMO is even more remarkable
He already outperformed Smith rookie season with a 2nd while Smith never made it into the top 5, and that bike was not bad at all, Crutchlow did 4 podiums with same bike
I didn´t have high hopes for him, but you´re forcing me to analyse and now he´s growing on me
So to compare the 3 rookies, the results so far:
Marquez
+3, +4, +3, +3, +5, +2, +6, +4, +14
Lecuona:
C, C, C, +8, +11, +5, C, +3, +0
Binder:
+2, C, +17, +13, +13, +7, C, +6, +4
so to me this looks quite clearly like Marquez is the worst of the rookies, maybe on the level of Lecuona, but clearly worse than Binder. And there you can't even claim that Binder is on a works machine since Marquez is also.
yes I do. Especially his riding looked silky smooth in the race.Andres125sx wrote: ↑20 Oct 2020, 07:50Add a +19 for Marquez, even better than Binder victoryrscsr wrote: ↑14 Oct 2020, 21:06In the end of the day, no one expects anything from rookies, but to improve from race to race. And to be honest he does show some improvement. When you compare someone, who is more likely to find in the second half of the grid, I think you should look at the position from the rear, and who he finished in front of. To account for crashes or technical issues of the riders in the front. Finishing 10th when 13 riders finish is not good, but 10th when everyone finishes is good, especially for a rookie.Andres125sx wrote: ↑14 Oct 2020, 20:38Bold claim mate!
A 2nd in his rookie season is remarkable. And he did it in the wet (his very first wet race with a MotoGP bike?) what IMO is even more remarkable
He already outperformed Smith rookie season with a 2nd while Smith never made it into the top 5, and that bike was not bad at all, Crutchlow did 4 podiums with same bike
I didn´t have high hopes for him, but you´re forcing me to analyse and now he´s growing on me
So to compare the 3 rookies, the results so far:
Marquez
+3, +4, +3, +3, +5, +2, +6, +4, +14
Lecuona:
C, C, C, +8, +11, +5, C, +3, +0
Binder:
+2, C, +17, +13, +13, +7, C, +6, +4
so to me this looks quite clearly like Marquez is the worst of the rookies, maybe on the level of Lecuona, but clearly worse than Binder. And there you can't even claim that Binder is on a works machine since Marquez is also.
Not sure if you´re reconsidering your opinion about Alex Marquez, but I am. He´s proving talent, speed and specially maturity and patience
Maybe Honda is changing his bike to adapt better to other riders? We´ll see when Marc come back
Glad to see Rins winning, last crash was painful, he deserved the victory. And Mir new leader, what a GP for Suzuki!
Another new winner, this season is historic. In some sense it´s similar to F1 in the sense than apart from the best (Marc / Mercedes) the rest are really paired. But much more in MotoGP. The data of 15 riders on the podium this season from a 22 riders grid is something from junior categories, in MotoGP this is historic
Also 4 different manufacturers taking a victory, and believe it or not Honda is not one of them (Yamaha, KTM, Ducati and Suzuki), so we should expect at least 5 different manufacturers taking a victory this season, impressive
#ForTheShow If CC could get P3 at Q then MM would be on pole and if AM can climb from 13 to 2nd and fought for 1st place, yea he can finish with 20 sec and even after a full wheelie last lap as a celebration.NathanOlder wrote: ↑20 Oct 2020, 17:47Here's a thought, If Marc had been in that race on Sunday. Where would he have finished ? 20+ seconds up the road ? Would have been a boring race. Without him has been so much more fun. Ban Marc for life
And now Nakagami and Marquez have crashed out.NathanOlder wrote: ↑24 Oct 2020, 16:50Yeah, Honda seems the very strong around here. If Marc was around it would surely have been 2 poles and 2 wins.
