Damage to Marc Marquez’s Ducati Revealed After Extinguishing Mishap

Marc Marquez saw his faint MotoGP title hopes disappear on Sunday at the Indonesian Grand Prix, as his Desmosedici GP23 Ducati caught fire at Mandalika.

Marquez carried on his impressive run of form from recent rounds to go from 12th on the grid to a sprint race podium on Saturday, and during Sunday’s main race, the Gresini rider was again in the fight for a big result.

However, Marquez failed to make it to the chequered flag when his Gresini Ducati caught fire, leading to marshals intervening with fire extinguishers. But while the intention was clearly an attempt to help, Marquez stated that the type of fire extinguishers used caused even more damage to the bike, to the point that a completely new bike would need to be built. 

“Of course, there was a big noise on the bike and also the engine stopped,” said Marquez when asked about the bike failure. But when I saw the white smoke, immediately I checked and it was a shame because also the fire extinguisher, the ones they have here are not the correct ones and the bike was completely damaged, everything, the brakes.

“It’s a shame for the team because for a private team it’s a big cost. But one of the things is the extinguishers need to be the correct ones, or the latest technological ones, because if not you destroy the bike.”

Marquez retired from the race while championship leader Jorge Martin went on to claim victory, cementing himself as one of the clear favourites to win the 2024 title. 78 points separates Marquez from Martin with just five rounds remaining, making it highly unlikely the eight-time world champion can stage a fightback.

Marquez admitted post-race that he was sad to lose such ground in the title race, but that his main goals for 2024 have already been achieved.

“Yeah, for that reason of course today I’m sad,” said Marquez. ”But it was not… I already said my target was already done. So my target from Misano or Aragon, in the press conference I already said what would be the next target, and it’s trying to find the consistency in the race.

“And it’s what I was doing in these last races. Ok, today we had that mistake. But try to find that consistency. And the next step is the qualifying practice and it’s what I will be super concentrated on in the next ones to try to be better and better and try to be on those first two rows in a constant way. This will be my next target.”

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