- Title: It's beautiful to win, but winning like a champion is better - Marc Marquez
- Date: 8th October 2019
- Summary: MADRID, SPAIN (OCTOBER 8, 2019) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF MARC MARQUEZ GETTING MIC'D UP AHEAD OF NEWS CONFERENCE MEMBER OF AUDIENCE TAKING PHOTO MARQUEZ RUNNING UP ONTO STAGE AND TAKING A SEAT VARIOUS OF MARQUEZ ON STAGE (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) SIX-TIMES MOTOGP TITLE HOLDER, MARC MARQUEZ, SAYING: "Yes, there was a moment somewhere halfway through the race, around lap 10, where he (Fabio Quartararo) took off and I fell back a bit, I could see (Andrea) Dovizioso was far away, that I had a clear advantage, but I had one goal on Thursday and I had to give it go. I raced three very risky laps and I thought, if I make it through those three laps it means I am ready to win the race, and I did. I had to try it. It's beautiful to win, but, if you win like a champion, it's better." MARQUEZ ON STAGE (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) SIX-TIMES MOTOGP TITLE HOLDER, MARC MARQUEZ, SAYING: "When you get to the middle of the season and you have a clear advantage and have won many races, you start feeling the pressure, the pressure that everyone is observing you, everyone is waiting to see if you make a mistake to beat you in a race... I lost two consecutive races in the last curve, that, as the competitive sportsman that I am, is quite annoying. You carry on without giving up, you try again in the next race and you can never feel superior. In a sport where one feels superior, one can be beaten at any moment. The good thing is to always feel as a rival, your rival is not better than you and you are not better than your rival. That way you are always ready." MARQUEZ ON STAGE (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) SIX-TIMES MOTOGP TITLE HOLDER, MARC MARQUEZ, SAYING: "It's a fact that what we concentrated on during the winter pre-season was the motor and we openly and publicly said that's where Honda was working. But this is like a (spinning) wheel. When you gain power, you lose other aspects. Normally when you gain power you lose agility, traction in slower sectors and that is what we are working on. You may have noticed, if you follow us closely, that we have started testing different chassis over this season. We are working a little more (on that) and the objective, looking ahead to next year, is not to lose power but gain agility, a little like what our rivals have, like Yamaha, which as you have said has agility in slower circuits where there are successive turns." MARQUEZ ON STAGE (SOUNDBITE) (English) SIX-TIMES MOTOGP TITLE HOLDER, MARC MARQUEZ, SAYING: "Yes of course, I mean yeah, what do you expect? Now it's time to enjoy this championship, but of course next winter, next 2020, we will try to work again really hard, learn about mistakes, try to understand what we did in a good way, where we did the mistakes, try to improve for next season. The main goal will be to fight again for the championship, it will be the main goal but of course to be strong all year you need to work really hard in the winter time with your team and I hope that the team will be ready to fight again for the championship and I will try again to work hard at home to be ready too." MARQUEZ ON STAGE (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) SIX-TIMES MOTOGP TITLE HOLDER, MARC MARQUEZ, SAYING: "I am person who likes to live in the present and does not like to live in the past or the future. I have never been obsessed with a number or a name, I simply live my passion and living with passion means living in the present and it is here where we will try to enjoy this title above all. Next year the objective will be the same and if at this same time next year, we are not in the lead it will be a year that is not a failure but a year when we have not achieved our objectives. We have eight (titles), next year we will fight for another, but time will tell." MARQUEZ ON STAGE WAVING AS HE FINISHES NEWS CONFERENCE VARIOUS OF MARQUEZ POSING FOR PHOTO OP NEXT WITH MOTORCYCLE VARIOUS OF MARQUEZ POSING ON STAGE WITH REPSOL MEMBERS LIFTING EIGHT FINGERS TO INDICATE MARQUEZ'S EIGHT TITLE (6 MOTOGP, 1 125cc, 1 MOTO2)
- Embargoed: 22nd October 2019 12:09
- Keywords: Marc Marquez Moto GP motorcycle racing World champion
- Location: MADRID, SPAIN
- City: MADRID, SPAIN
- Country: Spain
- Topics: Motorcycle Racing,Sport
- Reuters ID: LVA001B08LV0F
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Honda's Marc Marquez said on Tuesday (October 8) that it was "beautiful to win" his sixth MotoGP title, but it was even better to win "like a champion" after providing spectators and his team with a thrilling victory in a nail-biting duel with French rookie Fabio Quartararo in the Thai Thai Grand Prix on Sunday (October 6.)
The Spaniard has four races to spare after winning the Thai Grand Prix for the second year in a row, but has said his motivation is intact.
Marquez had to score two points more than Italian Ducati rival Andrea Dovizioso, who finished a distant fourth at Buriram's Chang International Circuit, to wrap up his fourth championship in a row.
The title was the eighth of 26-year-old Marquez's grand prix career, and he becomes the youngest rider ever to win so many. He was 125cc (now Moto3) world champion in 2010 and Moto2 winner in 2012.
Marquez, who passed Petronas Yamaha's Quartararo on the last lap after a wheel-to-wheel duel between the two rivals in sweltering heat, now has an unsurpassable 325 points to Dovizioso's 215.
The Spaniard, who had a huge crash in Friday (October 4) practice that sent him to hospital for checks and then fell again in qualifying, did not put a wheel wrong as he reined in pole-sitter Quartararo and denied the 20-year-old a first win.
The pair were just 0.171 of a second apart at the line.
Yamaha's Maverick Vinales finished third to complete the podium. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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