Fiery Indonesia GP retirement frustrates Marquez title hopes

Marc Marquez admitted to some ‘sadness’ at seeing his slender 2024 MotoGP title hopes go up in smoke after engine failure forced him to retire from the Indonesian Grand Prix.

After scything his way from 12th on the grid to finish third in Saturday’s sprint race, Marquez was in the mix for a similar result on Sunday too until his year-old Gresini Ducati cried enough on lap 12 of 27 while running seventh.

After two wins in three rounds reignited hope of a late charge towards a seventh MotoGP riders’ title, Marquez is now 78 points shy of Indonesia winner Jorge Martin in the standings and accepts he is out of the running with five rounds left to run.

“I’m sad [to be out of contention] but my targets [for 2024] are already complete,” said Marquez, who has secured a berth alongside Francesco Bagnaia at the factory Ducati team in 2025.

“I am just setting targets with each race, I am trying to find consistency in the race so it was good I was doing that.

“The next step is to improve qualifying, so I will super concentrate at the next one to be better and be on the first two rows. This is my next target.”

Having had his initial progress up the leaderboard hindered by a fierce but time-sapping tussle with Fabio di Giannantonio, Marquez nonetheless felt he had the pace to go with eventual podium finisher Bagnaia prior to retirement.

“A broken engine, unfortunately,” he said. “It is something that is not in our hands, but it sometimes happens and today it happened to me.

Marc Marquez, Gresini Racing

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

“We were super unlucky but together with Ducati, Gresini and myself, we win together and we lose together. Today we had a problem, but I felt good over the weekend and this is most important.

“We were there in a fight in the first part of the race, and in a fight like that you just lose time. I had the pace to be behind Pecco in a good way and I knew my target of third or the top five was under control behind Pecco.”

With a subsequent fire leaving the GP23 irreparably damaged, Marquez admits his Gresini Racing team faces an uphill task to ensure it is ready for the next round in Japan just a few days away.

“There was a big noise on the back and the engine stopped, but when I saw the white smoke, I checked immediately [for fire],” he explained.

“It’s a shame because the extinguishers they have here aren’t the correct ones, so the bike was completely damaged. It’s a shame for the team because for a private team it is a big cost.”

Reflecting on an entertaining tussle with di Giannantonio that saw the two riders swap position - and almost paint - on multiple occasions, Marquez admits he’d only find his rhythm once the Italian crashed out on lap nine.

“We started to have a fight with Diggia, which he was exaggerating a bit,” he added.

“He crashed because he had that soft rear tyre, so he was pushing a lot in the beginning and late braking.

“But once he crashed I started to get my rhythm and I was getting faster and faster, so we were unlucky.”