MotoGP: Marquez coping without wins

Marc Marquez has admitted that he’s coping just fine without winning races in the premier class at the minute, as he continues to edge closer to a seventh world title. Now not a race winner since Germany back in July and forced to settle for podiums as many times as he’s won this year, he nonetheless still enjoys a healthy 67-point championship lead.

And despite being lucky to finish second in Sunday’s race when Jorge Lorenzo crashed out in front of him, he says that the feeling he gets from the championship battle more than makes up for the lack of trips to the top step of the podium.

“We’re very happy with this podium because we knew that at this track Ducati would be very fast and actually they were! They’d tested here and we hadn’t, but we fought hard and we got very close. Without winning, I’m still increasing my lead in the championship and that’s the best way to cope with it.”

But while he’s been without a win since the German race in July, that could be set to change this weekend, as the Spaniard heads to one of the tracks where he’s been almost unbeatable in recent years.

“Aragón is one of my favourite circuits on the calendar, a track where I normally feel at ease and I can ride very well. I look forward to racing in front of my home crowd, and this year will be special because it will be the first time that a circuit dedicates a corner to me, and I’m very excited about that. Last year we arrived there equal on points in the Championship, but this season we have an advantage.

“This doesn’t mean that it’s over though; on the contrary, we must keep working hard because it seems that Ducati are fast and consistent at every track. We must find something that allows us to fight with them as well as possible. In Aragón we’ll try and be competitive from the beginning. We’ll try to find soon a good base and prepare well for the weekend.”