MotoGP Portimao: ‘Speed, confidence not there’ for Marquez

Portimao welcomed a lacklustre Marc Marquez on Sunday as the Repsol Honda rider openly struggled throughout the Portuguese GP.

A far cry from his stunning ride through the MotoGP pack last time out at COTA, Sunday witnessed an uninspired Spaniard as he circulated at the back of the top ten before meeting the flag in sixth - in part due to crashes around him and an entertaining late battle with younger brother Alex.

“Okay, nice battle with my brother, with Alex but it’s not the position we are looking for,” Marquez admitted at the close of the Algarve weekend. “We finish six but too far from the top guys. Today the speed was not there. Our confidence, the feeling with the bike was not there.

“In the beginning I struggle but then I fight during the race to be better and better but was not there the speed. Becomes everything a little bit more difficult but anyway, we were able to fight, to finish on that sixth position, but we need to do something. We need to find something more in Jerez if we want to fight for the podium.

“We can say many things,” he explained when asked what was holding him back this weekend. “We can say ‘Yeah, a new bike, first time in dry conditions…’ but when one bike is working well, you go out and you are fast. This is the truth. When you feel comfortable with a bike, you go out and doesn’t matter which conditions, doesn’t matter if it’s the first time, the second time or the third time, you are fast. So it’s true that at the moment we are looking for that confidence with this new bike and in Jerez we will have important weekend and we have important test.

“The season is very long but we need to do our step if we want to fight for the championship.

“This weekend I don’t want to fix one problem because