Marc Marquez admits that it is indeed “easier and easier” to confess that his current level on the 2022 Honda MotoGP bike isn’t good enough to compete for the top.
With the heatwaves seen this afternoon at the French Grand Prix, the six-time championship winner battled in qualifying and could only reach 10th place on the grid.
Marquez claims that his sensation was good in the cooler temperatures on Saturday morning, but that it worsened throughout the day, with an accident near the end of FP4 before qualifying not helping matters.
Marquez has stated that his race outcomes goals have indeed been top fives at best for the majority of the year, and that it isn’t getting any easier to confess despite “not being the place I want to finish.”
“No, it’s easier and easier to admit that,” Marquez responded when asked by Motorsport.com if it was getting harder to concede his level is not where it should be.
“In the beginning it’s hard to admit and you don’t want to admit that. But in the end you need to admit, because if every time you try to be a bit faster to be closer to the top guys, you crash, or you do some mistakes, or you struggle even more because you over-ride.
“We can finish fifth, sixth, seventh in a good race. If the race is not so good, if you don’t start so well, you can finish 10th or ninth and it would not be a surprise for us.
“It’s not the position I want to be, but it’s time to work, time to insist.
“All of the [Honda] riders are working to try to understand. But since we arrived in Europe, with tighter, more narrow tracks, we struggle more.”
“It’s true that this morning I had the speed,” Marquez explained of his Saturday.
“Ok, I was following Fabio [Quartararo in FP3], but before [when I was] alone the lap time was coming in an easier way and I knew that the speed was there.
“But this afternoon since FP4 the feeling was not good. Then I tried in the second run to ride alone, try to find the way to ride in those conditions.
“But even like this I crashed trying to understand where I could push more.
“So, after the crash the feeling was worse. And then in the qualy, I go out and again the feeling was not good, and just I did my maximum.
“Even with the second tyre I put on the soft front to understand if it was a better feeling.
“It felt better but was too soft. So we will see tomorrow, if it’s a bit cloudy maybe we can have a better pace. But not pace to win or to fight for the podium.”
Pol Espargaro, a teammate, did not fare any better, starting 11th in Sunday’s race.
However, he found comfort in the fact that Marquez was experiencing the same rear grip issues he had been experiencing since the beginning of the year.
“Well, it’s difficult,” Espargaro began. “I mean the good point is I’ve felt like that since the beginning of the year and I’ve been complaining about that since the beginning of the year, and now Marc is feeling it too.
“I complained also in Jerez, Marc didn’t complain too much. But today he felt it a lot, so it’s nice at least to be on the same feeling and suffering with the same problems.
“We didn’t expect to suffer so much. I didn’t make my last lap because I found Johann in the middle of the second lap.”
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