Marquez on a roll
Marc wins but Lorenzo blames him for crash
MotoGP title rivals Marc Marquez and Andrea Dovizioso remain divided on whether this season’s crown is still up for grabs despite a dramatic victory for the Repsol Honda rider in Sunday’s Aragon Grand Prix. Marquez now leads Dovizioso by 72 points, but the young Spaniard maintains there are still opportunities where he could throw it all away.
Despite looking stronger than ever to beat both Dovizioso and Andrea Iannone in Sunday’s thrilling and tactical scrap, the reigning champion is adamant the 2018 title is not yet in the bag. “The job isn’t finished yet, and it won’t be until I’ve enough points to make sure I can’t be overtaken,” said Marquez. “We could make the mistake of thinking it’s already there. I did that in 2014 and crashed two races in a row.
“So, this year we need to focus and keep working. In MotoGP, anything can happen – we can make a mistake, have a mechanical problem, human error, track conditions and the weather. We need to work hard and keep focused on chances to win the race. I always start the weekend wanting to win and then see what happens on Sunday, we’ll keep doing that.” But while Marquez has all the pressure on his shoulders going into MotoGP’s four-race trip to Asia in two weeks’ time, rival Dovizioso is under no illusions about his chances of wresting Marquez’s crown off him.
Needing nothing short of a disaster that would force Marquez out of at least two races the Italian admitted his hopes are slim. “To gain 72 points in five races is impossible,” he told MCN. “The only way is if he doesn’t race – and even then it would be hard! If we want to be realistic, we can’t win. Everything can happen in a race and mathematically it is open, but that’s not really the situation.” However, while Dovizioso may have little chance of becoming champion, he’s keen to make life as difficult as possible for Marquez. Now riding a Ducati that’s faster than ever and able to go well at almost every circuit, he’s looking forward to the rest of this season and, even more importantly, next. “Phillip Island is the worst track for our bike so it’ll be interesting to see what happens because I think we can be strong there this year. What happened in Aragon was far more important than the win in Misano because it confirmed our improvements.”
And while it might take a miracle for Dovi to become Ducati’s first champion since Casey Stoner in 2007, there is always the chance of Marc Marquez taking things a step too far – something he hinted was still possible after Sunday’s race when he admitted, “I got up this morning and told myself that I wanted to take a risk today!”