{"id":505550,"date":"2026-06-22T14:42:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-22T14:42:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/505550\/"},"modified":"2026-06-22T14:42:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-22T14:42:11","slug":"talking-points-we-are-in-the-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/505550\/","title":{"rendered":"Talking Points: “We are in the game”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Incredible pace, breathtaking battles and a statement win at one of the most iconic venues in the world \u2013 need we say more? The Monster Energy Grand Prix of Czechia<\/a> delivered the goods on Sunday as Marc Marquez<\/a> (Ducati Lenovo Team) impressed with Sunday glory, defeating Ai Ogura<\/a> (SuperFile Trackhouse MotoGP Team) and teammate Francesco Bagnaia<\/a> (Ducati Lenovo Team). Get stuck into the hottest talking points following an unbelievable visit at Round 9 of the season!<\/p>\n

“We are in the game”<\/p>\n

If there is one thing that is guaranteed from Marc Marquez, it\u2019s the #93\u2019s ability to do the unthinkable \u2013 the Czech GP was proof once more. Marc Marquez sits just 40 points adrift from the Championship lead, leaving plenty of questions and an exciting second half of 2026. His pace? Simply incredible, with the reigning MotoGP World Champion adding that the result was “unexpected” as he eyes his next target in Germany.<\/p>\n

Marc Marquez: “Of course, it was completely unexpected, this one, especially because I think today the best target, a very optimistic target, was a podium. But victory was something that I didn\u2019t expect. \u00a0<\/p>\n

“One and a half months ago, it was completely over. I was in the hospital and more than 100 points behind. So now I don’t know how I\u2019m 40 points behind the leader. We are in the game. I need to have my feet on the ground because in Assen, I need to survive. It\u2019s a circuit where, normally, when I\u2019m fit, I\u2019m already struggling, so this year I need to have this extra attention there. Then to the Sachsenring, the summer break, and then I hope, and I believe that after the summer break I will come back in attack mode.”<\/p>\n

“The race weekend was fantastic”<\/p>\n

Pole position and a double P2 finish, not bad for Ai Ogura! The Japanese star experienced an incredible weekend, flying the flag for Trackhouse and as the top Aprilia this weekend. Ogura created headlines as he remains one of the riders to watch this season, leaving the weekend with plenty of positives and still some areas of improvement for the #79.<\/p>\n

Ogura: “Overall, the race weekend was fantastic for us. Qualifying was one of the weakest points for us, and we managed to do it better this time. Second in both races is still a good result, so we can be super, super happy about the weekend.<\/p>\n

“I enjoyed the first few laps, but just for a few laps because they passed me. I feel like I could have more, but no. It\u2019s nice to experience that anyway.”<\/p>\n

“Let me win one race”<\/p>\n

Sprint victory and another Sunday podium, Francesco Bagnaia was on top form this weekend. It was a remarkable ride from the Italian, who looked unstoppable on Saturday, controlling the Sprint pace. Bagnaia also took the lead during the opening laps of Sunday\u2019s action before settling for P3 and earning valuable points.<\/p>\n

Bagnaia: “Maybe I need to ask Marc the same, to let me win one race. In any case, I\u2019m happy. We are improving. We are getting closer to the pace. Today we missed the last six, five laps. I also knew this morning, and after looking at the times of Marc and Ai, also from Diggia, that during the weekend I was missing one or two tenths.<\/p>\n

“Today I tried everything in the first laps to control the race, and until lap 16 I was quite confident. I was not having vibration like yesterday, but I started to have more of a floating feeling, and honestly, I was struggling a bit. As soon as I was leading, it was better. When Marc overtook me, I started to struggle a lot with the front, and I needed to let them go away.”<\/p>\n

“I didn’t do anything wrong”<\/p>\n

It was yet another rollercoaster weekend for Pedro Acosta<\/a> (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing), with the #37 retiring on the final lap. It was late technical heartbreak for Acosta, who left the weekend with zero points scored following a Turn 11 crash in Saturday\u2019s Sprint. However, his pace looked strong, leaving some positive takeaways in a weekend to forget for the KTM star, who described his pace as “not a disaster”.<\/p>\n

Acosta: “I’m not even disappointed. I didn’t do anything wrong. For this, it\u2019s not in my hands; I cannot check. It is what it is, now it’s time for KTM to give some answers and try to analyse why we are having these reliability problems, because there have already been many.<\/p>\n

“Not a disaster. Our target was between third and fifth. We were in fourth position. I was having some problems with the front tyre pressure. I let Diggia pass, and then he was faster than me.”<\/p>\n

“150% from our package”<\/p>\n

Continuing to work hard and make steps forward was Joan Mir<\/a> (Honda HRC Castrol), with the #36 finishing inside the top five. It was Mir\u2019s best Sunday result of the season as teammate Luca Marini (Honda HRC Castrol) finished P8 \u2013 ending a positive weekend for the Japanese manufacturer. Mir also improved on his P10 finish in Saturday\u2019s Sprint, giving the 2020 MotoGP World Champion plenty to reflect on.<\/p>\n

Mir: “I think it was a very solid race, I\u2019m very happy with it. I think we got 150% from our package here, but it\u2019s true that it feels like a top six with the problems with Pedro. But it feels like a very real top six or top five because no one made any mistakes in front, and it was more than we probably expected at the beginning of the race. Hopefully, we can continue like this, and for me, it\u2019s important for us to find the consistency.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Incredible pace, breathtaking battles and a statement win at one of the most iconic venues in the world…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":505551,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[85,46,105],"class_list":["post-505550","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/505550","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=505550"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/505550\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/505551"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=505550"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=505550"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=505550"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}