Marc Marquez Focused On Improving His Own Lap Time Rather Than Testing 2025 Bike At Misano

Saajan Jogia | Sep 10, 2024

Apr 13, 2024; Austin, TX, USA; Marc Marquez (93) of Spain and Gresini Racing MotoGP waves to the fans after the Americas Grand Prix sprint race at Circuit of The Americas. Mandatory Credit: Jerome Miron-Imagn Images / Jerome Miron-Imagn Images

Marc Marquez revealed that, during the post-San Marino MotoGP test at Misano, he focused mainly on improving his Gresini Ducati GP23 setup and lap times, while only briefly testing the 2025-spec Michelin tire to prepare for the next season.

While Marquez closed the gap to Jorge Martin in the overall standings to 53 points, he chose to focus on fine-tuning his current GP23 setup, even as the Ducati Lenovo factory team—his future team—worked on 2025-spec electronics during the test.

The six-time MotoGP World Champion skillfully maneuvered through tricky conditions to overtake Francesco Bagnaia during the Misano race. It was anticipated that Ducati would test the 2025 machine with Marquez and Bagnaia, his future teammate, but that did not happen.

At the test, however, he concentrated on refining his performance while giving a favorable assessment of Michelin's 2025 front tire. Explaining his verdict of the test that took place on September 9, he told Motorsport.com:

"No, no, we rode with the bike we had and we tried some of the things that had already been used in some Grand Prix to rule it out and get it out of our heads. [As translated by Google]

"We tried one little thing, a suspension, so that if a problem arises tomorrow we already have the solutions.

"The last ride, which is normally when you put everything together, I went with yesterday's bike, this was the summary of the day."

He added:

"It's more of a basic set-up and we've made a few changes to see, but we quickly returned to what I'm comfortable with, especially for race pace. What remains to be seen is what I want to improve in the next races: improving my attack on time."

Speaking about the area where he noticed big changes, Michelin's 2025 front tire, Marquez said:

"I've tried it and it's very different, from the biggest changes in terms of tires, it's very stable. If you brake late it starts to work well, but it's a tire that in the first laps when you left the pits seemed like they didn't know how to ride a bike, it made the bike very heavy. They have to work on the flexibility of the tire."

However, while some riders reported issues with the new tire, Marquez stated he encountered no problems. He clarified:

"I don't have that problem, the bike is very stable under braking. At least in our garage, stability under braking is precisely what our bike excels at."

When asked if he would win the second race at Misano, making it three in a row, he said:

"I'll tell you on Saturday after qualifying. One took a thousand days and the second a little less, but Misano 2 is going to be very tight and one of my strong points in riding is arriving at a circuit and going fast straight away.

"Having two races in a row on the same circuit doesn't benefit me, I'm better at improvisation and as we've seen in the test everything is very tight."