Austin, Marquez’s kingdom
Seven victories and eight pole positions in 11 editions disputed: these numbers alone are enough to summarize the strength of Marc Marquez at Austin. The Spanish ace is the absolute master in Texas, and will exploit this special affinity with the COTA to interrupt Marco Bezzecchi’s winning streak, at least partially closing the 22-point gap that separates him from the Rimini rider in the standings.
Marquez’s words
Marquez, who at Austin is chasing his 100th victory considering all classes, framed the Texas weekend like this: “Surely last year we started the season differently, in better form. We want to find good feeling again and improve our knowledge of the bike. Usually Austin is a track that suits my style, but the first two sectors are quite physical and I’m not sure I’m still at 100% from that point of view. Yes, the start of the season can remind us of 2017 (when Maverick Viñales won the first two races, ed.), but when there’s a rider like Marco who is winning easily, it becomes very difficult to stop him. And besides, I was in a different form then, now I just need to be patient“, this was his comment in the press conference.
“Surely it’s a track that I love, but it’s a track that in the last four seasons hasn’t given me success, so I need to understand well what mistakes I made and how to improve. Marco comes from four consecutive victories, he’s showing great speed and he’s the favorite, because he’s leading the championship. I will try to stop him, but at the moment he’s the fastest rider, and Di Giannantonio is also very strong: we will try to focus on our work to find 100% of the potential“.
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“There are many corners, which require at least three different ways of driving in a single lap: you need to understand which one to activate and when; surely the most difficult part is the first sector, because it changes almost every lap, you can’t always be 100% precise“, he added. “I think I have the best bike and the best team, but I’m missing a bit of feeling, I need to be more consistent in lap times. As we showed in qualifying, we have the speed, but we need a little more consistency, we need to be able to find lap times more easily. We’re getting closer to that feeling though, in Brazil it went better compared to Thailand and I think in the next races we’ll manage it“.
