Marquez: Only Honda at the front last year “means something”

Marc Marquez says he has to be wary of his rivals despite his flawless German MotoGP record at Sachsenring after pointing out he was the only Honda rider to finish at the sharp-end 12 months ago.

The Repsol Honda rider is aiming to score a perfect 10 in Germany this weekend, with nine consecutive pole positions and victories across his career in all classes at Sachsenring, but feels he can’t be overly confident going into this weekend given his last perfect record at the Americas MotoGP went earlier this season when he crashed out of the race while leading.

He also feels he was an anomaly to Honda’s performance in Germany last year with his victory as the next best Honda rider was his teammate Dani Pedrosa down in eighth place – the only two Honda riders to finish in the points.

With one eye continuing to stay stuck on the MotoGP championship picture, which he leads by 44 points from Andrea Dovizioso, he’s eager to assess the level of his rivals while sticking to his “consistent” mindset which has paid off so far in 2019.

“The philosophy we’ve followed for the past two years we’ve tried to be consistent at all race tracks,” Marquez said. “That’s the way we are working and already we saw last year that we won the race, but second and third were Yamaha and four, five, six and seven were Ducati. That means something.

“We know which strong points we have and we know the weak points. We are trying to improve our weak points. But like in Assen we struggled all weekend but in the race we were there until the end [on the podium] so this is the most important thing.

“We will see during the weekend and our opponents will show to us what are their positions and their levels. The target is to try to work in the best way and to be competitive from the beginning and then we will see on Sunday.

“Of course I have the experience of Austin that means everybody expects a victory and definitely at the moment it was the worst weekend in the first part of the season.”

Having conceded he sacrificed his fight for victory at Assen in order to bank a podium position to strengthen his MotoGP championship lead, Marquez says he will  continue to stick to this mantra regardless of losing his perfect record at Sachsenring.

“Our key point and the most important point is the consistency and to have a bike and a setup that is working more or less good in all circuits,” he said. “That’s the way to win a championship.

“For me in all conditions, in all weekends and with all different layouts we need to be fast enough to be on the podium. We are working in that way and that means our weak points are a little bit stronger but our strong points are a little bit less.”