Marc Marquez feels that continuing Honda’s uptick in performance across the past couple of MotoGP events will be “too much to ask” in the upcoming races.
Honda’s RC213V has shown improved form compared to the rest of the 2023 season across the last two race weekends in India and Japan. Factory riders Marc Marquez and Joan Mir showed top-five speed across the entirety of the Indian event before the Spanish pair possessed top-ten speed in the dry at the Mobility Resort Motegi in Japan.
Having finished seventh in Saturday’s sprint race, Marquez then made the most of a sodden circuit in Sunday’s Japanese Grand Prix to secure his first Sunday podium finish since last year’s Australian GP behind title contenders Jorge Martin and Francesco Bagnaia.
Marquez warned though that he felt Honda’s recent upturn in performance likely wouldn’t last into the following weekends, the six-time premier class world champion feeling that the more stop-start layouts of the Buddh and Motegi venues helped to mask the limitations of Honda’s current package.
“Normally on these kind of tracks I’m quite good in the wet as last year I got pole in the rain, so I followed everyone in and then tried to manage the race well,” explained Marquez following the Japanese GP.
“No (can’t fight for top results in dry), that’s too much to ask right now. India and here have similar kinds of corners where I can make the difference in the braking zones and also pick the bike up quickly and get a good exit.
“Mandalika there are a few corners where you need to use the banking where edge grip and traction are important, and this is where we struggle and are losing a lot.
“You can’t do anything and you just spin but I’ll do my best, but for sure it’ll be more difficult which means enjoying the good moments are even more important.”
Marquez added that scoring a long-awaited rostrum result at Honda’s home race is “important” for he and the manufacturer, adding that his feeling with the RC213V improved the wetter the track became.
“This is an important podium, we’ve been looking for it for the entire season. It’s arrived a bit late but it’s good that it has come at the home circuit (for Honda) and a day where I took profit from the wet weather,” continued Marquez.
“I tried to manage the race in the best way, I knew when we changed the tyres on the first lap that the race would be very long.
“You have different moments in the race because at the beginning I was struggling a bit too much but trying to manage the tyre, but when the track became really wet I started to attack and get faster and faster. Today we’ll definitely take the podium.”
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