Marc Marquez insists the Catalan Grand Prix wasn’t the moment to go “all in” for victory — even if that meant postponing his first title match point in the 2025 MotoGP season.
After winning Saturday’s Sprint when brother Alex Marquez crashed from the lead, Marc only needed to outscore him by two points in Sunday’s race to set up a chance to seal the title at Misano next weekend.
But despite piling relentless pressure on the Gresini rider, Marc couldn’t crack his younger brother and had to settle for second place, ending his streak of seven straight grand prix wins. His first chance to clinch the crown will now come no sooner than Japan.
Marquez admitted he could have risked more in Barcelona, but with a commanding 182-point lead in the standings, he chose to play it smart.
“I mean, still seven races to go,” he said.
“In the end, my target is to try to keep the same mentality. Don’t exaggerate, try to control the limits, try to control the bike, try to control all the points.”
“Today it’s true maybe I was able to do all in, but it was not time to do it.”
“It’s time to keep going, keep the same concentration. I was happy because I said on Thursday that there will be a day where I need to accept that somebody is faster than me. And little brother was faster than me this weekend. When you are on the bike you try everything.”
“On lap three or four I overtook him on the straight, but just I rolled the gas because the target was to try to open the gap with the third guy and I know that he had better rhythm, he was faster, and just I was using his slipstream to open a gap with the other guys.”
Ducati had warned Barcelona could be “the loss”
After the race, the 32-year-old revealed Ducati team boss Davide Tardozzi had told him Sunday could be the day he’d have to accept second place.
“I was telling to you since summer break that there will be one day that somebody will be faster than me and I need to accept it,” Marc said.
“So, that sentence, I keep saying in my head and today Davide Tardozzi told me, he said to me maybe today is the day. Maybe. You will try. You need to try.”
“But today on the paper… I tried, you see on Turn 10 I went in and then I had a flashback from [Alex] yesterday.”
“I always will try and sometimes you try and you can’t. Today with Alex, last year with Pecco [Bagnaia] here, and yesterday I said to Spanish journalists I predicted a race like this: I said I will follow Alex and maybe in the end I will try but he will be faster than me.”
“And it was exactly the same race as last year here with Pecco, following him all the race and in the last laps they had a bit more.”
“But for me, the most important thing in a championship, is that in a circuit where I’m struggling I was close to the fastest guy.”
