{"id":563690,"date":"2026-03-25T16:30:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-25T16:30:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/563690\/"},"modified":"2026-03-25T16:30:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-25T16:30:09","slug":"marc-marquez-didnt-have-everything-he-normally-has-at-brazil-motogp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/563690\/","title":{"rendered":"Marc Marquez &#8220;didn&#8217;t have everything he normally has\u201d at Brazil MotoGP"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Marc Marquez\u2019s former team-mate Dani Pedrosa sees the reigning MotoGP champion as being in damage limitation mode at the start of the 2026 campaign.<\/p>\n<p>The<a href=\"https:\/\/www.crash.net\/motogp\/teams\/ducati-lenovo-team\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"> Ducati Lenovo<\/a> rider, who missed the final five rounds of last season due to shoulder surgery, kicked off the new season strongly by fighting Pedro Acosta for victory in the Buriram Sprint.<\/p>\n<p>Marquez would have won that battle without a late penalty, but victory was already out of reach by the time he was forced out of the grand prix with a broken wheel rim.<\/p>\n<p>Brazil then saw <a href=\"https:\/\/www.crash.net\/motogp\/racer\/1654\/marc-marquez\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Marquez <\/a>bounce back by narrowly defeating fellow Ducati rider Fabio di Giannantonio to win the Sprint, his first victory since last September.<\/p>\n<p>But Aprilia\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.crash.net\/motogp\/racer\/995158\/marco-bezzecchi\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Marco Bezzecchi<\/a> again dominated the grand prix, backed up by team-mate Jorge Martin, while Diggia turned the tables on Marquez to claim third.<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p>All of which leaves Marc Marquez just fifth in the standings heading into this weekend\u2019s COTA event.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;He looked a bit uncomfortable on the bike&#8230; Especially on the undulations and when he tried to push hard: the bike immediately told him no,\u201d GPOne.com quotes Pedrosa as saying of Marquez during his punditry work for DAZN.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Marc has a special ability to manage the limit. That&#8217;s why he managed to stay close to di Giannantonio without letting him pull too far ahead. He fought for the podium until the end, but he didn&#8217;t have everything he normally has.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t know if it&#8217;s a physical issue, a setup issue, or both. But he struggled. Marc is someone who knows how to push through the pain, and that&#8217;s why he stayed in the fight.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We&#8217;re seeing a Marquez who realises he&#8217;s not at his best and is trying to take home as many points as possible until he&#8217;s competitive enough to win again.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p>All of Marquez\u2019s seven <a href=\"https:\/\/www.crash.net\/motogp\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">MotoGP <\/a>title-winning seasons started with at least one grand prix victory from the opening three rounds.<\/p>\n<p>In that respect, COTA is his last chance.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf you look at Marc&#8217;s titles, it&#8217;s rare that he hasn&#8217;t won at least one of the first [GPs],&#8221; Pedrosa said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis could be the first time he starts without winning [GPs] and still manages to win the world championship.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>A Marquez victory on Sunday in Texas would mean bringing Bezzecchi\u2019s streak of leading all 101 laps since last year\u2019s penultimate Portimao round to an end.<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p> Article continues below ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I think they&#8217;ve found the right balance. Between aerodynamics, traction, and cornering ability, without losing top speed,\u201d Pedrosa said of the impressive RS-GP.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey have the right balance of everything: stability, corner entry, grip, and traction.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn the end, they manage to transfer power to the ground better than the others.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Subscribe to our MotoGP Newsletter<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Marc Marquez\u2019s former team-mate Dani Pedrosa sees the reigning MotoGP champion as being in damage limitation mode at&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":563691,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[64,63,26426,4280,806,805,803,804,85],"class_list":["post-563690","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-motosport","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-dani-pedrosa","tag-marc-marquez","tag-motor","tag-motor-sports","tag-motosport","tag-motosports","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/563690","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=563690"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/563690\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/563691"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=563690"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=563690"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=563690"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}