Marquez puts Qatar behind him

After fighting back through the field in the Qatar Grand Prix to finish fifth Marc Marquez is keen to get his season back on track in this weekend’s Grand Prix of the Americas.

“I’m really looking forward to getting to Austin and putting Qatar behind us,” said Marquez. “The Circuit of The Americas is one of my favourite circuits and I have good memories of taking my first win in the MotoGP class, back in 2013, and also winning there last year. We need to work hard from FP1 and then keep this momentum for the whole weekend and have a ‘normal’ race.”

In Qatar Marquez ran wide at the first corner and dropped to the back of the field. After the race one of the biggest question marks was whether he actually had the pace to fight for the race. Getting back to fifth was highly impressive but given the speed and consistency of Rossi and Dovizioso nothing was certain as to if he could have battled for the win.

“You never know [if I had the speed], because when you make a mistake, you manage the race in a different way, but the rhythm was there, because in some parts of the race, I was faster than them, and I was catching them, but on the last two laps, Valentino and Dovi they push a lot. But you never know, because when you are there, you can manage the tyres, you can cool down, it is different. I felt I was ready to fight for the victory, but now it’s too late to know.”