Marc Marquez responded strongly to critics after his hard-fought win at the Dutch MotoGP, calling out claims that his rivals are going easy on him.
The factory Ducati rider, now 68 points clear in the MotoGP championship, held off Marco Bezzecchi to win at Assen and complete a double victory weekend. But the conversation off-track centered on criticism that riders — notably his brother Alex Marquez — were not challenging him aggressively enough.
“It was really difficult,” Marquez said of Bezzecchi’s pressure. “I want to say to the people: respect all the riders. Yesterday, in the media scrum, they said ‘your brother didn’t attack you like others,’ and even some mechanics mentioned social media talk.”
He continued, “Today, Marco didn’t attack me either — why? Because this track is narrow. If the front rider is strong and clean on the line, it’s hard to pass. I defended well, on the brakes, and took 37 points this weekend.”
The eight-time world champion stressed that all riders race to win and deserve respect:
“Every rider defends their colours. Everyone on the grid wants to win. But only one can. Yesterday I defended Alex, today I defend Marco.”
Speaking to TNT Sports, Marquez admitted: “I was angry. People must respect the other riders.”
He also revealed he used Ducati’s new aerodynamic fairing due to a crash in FP1, not strategy:
“I crashed with my first bike and switched to the second with the new aero. I got used to it and said, ‘OK, let’s keep it.’ We’ll test the standard again at Sachsenring.”
Marquez confirmed his base set-up hasn’t changed since Thailand, only minor tweaks were made at Mugello.
