Marc Marquez: 'It's not that the others are going faster, it's that I'm going slower'

Yahoo Sports11h ago8 min readOriginal source →

TL;DR

Marc Marquez admits to struggling with his performance at Le Mans, attributing his issues to his own speed rather than the bike. He failed to qualify directly for Q2 for the first time since the 2025 season.

Key points

Marc Marquez blames his performance issues on himself.
He finished ninth-fastest in Practice for the French Grand Prix.
This is the first time since 2025 he failed to qualify directly for Q2.
Francesco Bagnaia's crash affected Marquez's final push in Practice.

Marc MarquezFrancesco Bagnaia

Motorsport photo

After hitting a new low for 2026 at Le Mans on Friday, Marc Marquez is sticking to the same explanation for his troubles that he has offered in previous races. The nine-time world champion insists that he is the problem, not the bike.

In Practice for the French Grand Prix, the Spaniard failed to make it directly into Q2 for the first time since last year's Indonesian Grand Prix - the scene of a big crash that put him out of action for the rest of the 2025 season.

While a crash by his factory Ducati team-mate Francesco Bagnaia ruined Marquez's final push by bringing out a yellow flag, Marquez was by no means certain to have made it through. He struggled for pace all day, having finished FP1 ninth-fastest and failed to set the world alight through the course of Practice.

As has become his habit in this difficult season, the 33-year-old from Cervera wasn't in any mood to sugarcoat the situation afterwards.

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“On my final attempt at a fast lap, I wasn't able to finish it the way I should have," he said. "[But] if you have the speed, the yellow flags don't matter, because sooner or later you'll set a fast lap."

Not only did he again state that his fitness was no issue as far as his speed was concerned, he also noted that (VR46), Bagnaia and Marc's brother Alex (Gresini) had filled out the top four on similar Ducati machinery.