Marquez warns Honda weaknesses not cured

The reigning MotoGP champion was back to his imperious best at the Sachsenring on Sunday, taking a second victory of the season in commanding fashion and leading home teammate Dani Pedrosa in a Repsol Honda one-two.

But, speaking afterwards in the post-race press conference, Marquez warned that the problems that have plagued Honda’s season still exist, highlighting that the nature of the circuit helped to mask the RC213V’s deficiencies.

“We must be honest – on this track, for my riding style and for Honda, everything was working well, and there aren’t many corners here where we have problems,” admitted the Spaniard.

“The character [of the bike] was still there, so we must work to find the correct solution for the second part of the season. If we can find the solution, we can be much stronger.

“We have problems in corners where you go in fast and you need to keep corner speed – that is where we suffer a lot on the rear.

“At Assen we were able to manage it better, but we still need to work for when we arrive at other circuits with lots of corners like this. I hope we find something next week [in testing at Misano] in this aspect.”

Win eradicates doubts over riding

Marquez also revealed that he had begun to doubt himself following crashes at Mugello and Catalunya – but also that his form since Assen has helped to restore his confidence.

“The first part of the season has been difficult because I didn’t have the feel with the bike; I didn’t have that confidence,” said the 22-year-old.

“During the races where I struggled a lot, I arrived at one point thinking ‘maybe it’s my riding style that has changed a little bit’.

“Now I don’t have this doubt and I know I need to believe in myself and in Honda because step by step we are coming stronger.”