MotoGP Qatar, Márquez arrives on the last plane: «I’d like to be somewhere else»

Marc Marquez is in Lusail for the Qatar GP, the first weekend in which he can clinch the MotoGP World Championship. The Ducati rider arrives with the aim of building a more favourable situation to celebrate in Portugal or in Valencia, even if to be on track he had to accept the trip to Qatar and thus avoid economic and sporting penalties.

For that reason he organised the journey at the last possible moment. He arrived in Doha on the last useful flight and aims to stay in Qatar as little as possible until Sunday, before heading straight back to Europe. «I’d like to be somewhere else, to be honest», he said in front of the cameras.

Sunday at Lusail could be worth his eighth MotoGP title and his tenth overall. To do so he must score 30 points more than Jorge Martin; in any case, his reference remains clear: score points and keep control of the weekend. Marquez himself recalled that this is not the ideal circuit to celebrate a title, much better suited to a finish like Valencia or Portimão.

The title fight

Since the Sunday of the French Grand Prix, when he underwent surgery on his shoulder, Marquez has climbed the standings race after race. Four months ago a position like this seemed hard to imagine; today the Spaniard knows that his title fight does not depend solely on him, but also on the performance of his rivals.

At the official Qatar GP press conference he explained that he still does not feel he is in a normal World Championship build-up and that he wants to keep the same mindset as in the latest races. Speaking to AS, he made it clear that, at the moment, he is thinking above all about racing and continuing to score points, without changing the way he approaches the weekend.