Mark Marquez took a massive 83-point lead in the 2025 MotoGP standings after a dominant victory at the German Grand Prix last weekend.
Despite the changeable conditions over the weekend, the factory Ducati rider doubled their fourth sprint/grand prix in a row, for the seventh total.
The day before, Mark Marquez admitted that he exempts his rival from his Grand Prix checkered flag for more than six seconds and pushes “too much” to pursue a sprint victory in the wet.
“He’s sitting on one shoulder of this kind of Marquez, the other Marquez sitting on the other shoulder whispering in his ear, “We can do this,” and “No, Mark, don’t listen to him.”
“And I think this weekend was a perfect example. In reality on Friday, he didn’t put in new tires to make his time attacks at the end, and third place was enough for the best lap time on used tires.
“And just said, ‘I’m getting ready for dry on Sunday’ and he was thinking ahead, knowing that Saturday would get wet.
“Then it comes on Saturday, he doesn’t need to win a sprint, and he has a whisper to his ear, “Go, do it.”
“And he says himself. But when you know you have so many hands around this circuit, how do you control yourself?”
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Marquez has not been tested at any point in the 30-lap Grand Prix and doesn’t believe MotoGP editor Peter Mclaren has truly seen what the eight-time world champion can do.
“He justified that by saying it felt so good on a bike,” McLaren said of Marquez’s sprint victory.
“So, despite his obvious push, he didn’t feel it, despite the victory.
“Come on Sunday, the clouds were clean and he took the hole shot to turn 1 – do the race.
“He was always under control. Mark is seeing a form that is unstoppable at this point. We’re heading to Brno now.
“But the event before this weekend was on a trajectory that wasn’t very suitable for Mark.
“We came to Saxenring… I told him he showed us what he could do, but I don’t think he did.
“I think he was held back by so much he’s never actually seen what Mark could do with a dry truck.
“He said at a press conference that he respects his rivals and that it’s difficult to win in this sport. But it was just a dream combination of riders, bikes and trucks.”
Luis Duncan, a senior journalist at Crush, added that Marquez’s recent run showed ironing an early season mistake that lost a big point in the opening grand prix.
“We saw those early season mistakes and he talked about how it was his weakness,” Duncan said.
“Since then, since Aragon, it’s all really ironed. He’s been in many different conditions to test it. In Aragon he’s in a very dominant form and he didn’t make any mistakes.
“In Mugero and Assen, he was pushed really, really hard from behind, and he didn’t crack. He learned perfectly from all of this and in this era four consecutive doubles are unprecedented.
“Think about last year at the same time. Jorge Martin won twice.”