Valentino Rossi is also at Misano: Marc Marquez avoids "provocations"

The presence of the old “rival” does not distract the reigning MotoGP champion, who is focused on the battle with Bezzecchi and Aprilia.

A good start for Marc Marquez in Misano Adriatico. The Ducati Lenovo MotoGP rider topped FP1 and then finished second in the Pre-Qualifying session. His gap to Marco Bezzecchi on the flying lap was 103 thousandths, but the Spaniard saved a soft rear tire and therefore may not have shown his full potential.

In any case, there’s still Saturday morning’s FP2 to try to sort out what’s missing ahead of qualifying, the sprint, and the race. In Emilia-Romagna, the reigning champion won the long race in 2024 and 2025, so he will certainly be one to watch this weekend.

The Romagna track requires a fair bit of physical effort, so Marquez is also managing himself, and perhaps that kept him from having the pace he would have liked today: “We worked well,” he told Motosan, “but we don’t know what our rhythm is. We’re quite a bit behind Bezzecchi and others in terms of race pace. But we’ll try to work on it tomorrow.”

The nine-time world champion is aware of the sections at Misano where he needs to improve his performance: “We know that sectors 2–4 are our strong point, while sectors 1–3, the longer ones, are our weak point, and that’s where we need to work. Bezzecchi is fast on all types of tracks and corners.”

Some are predicting a duel between Marquez and Bezzecchi, but Marc believes that both for the San Marino and Rimini Riviera GP and in the title fight, other riders cannot be ruled out, starting with today’s overall MotoGP points leader: “It seems everyone is talking about me and Bezzecchi, but here Jorge Martín is the leader, Di Giannantonio is 48 points back, and Alex, since returning from injury, is showing a fantastic level. It’s not a two-horse race; at the moment it’s a four- or five-way fight.”

Valentino Rossi is also at the Misano World Circuit, owner of the VR46 team and a former rival. Asked about the matter—specifically the TV production repeatedly cutting from one to the other during on-track action—Marquez chose to keep it brief and avoid any provocation: “I think there’s already enough spectacle on track without having to get involved in these little games.”

He did well to respond that way; he has no reason to comment on something that isn’t important to him. He has other things on his mind now, and what happened with Rossi belongs to the past. His focus is on being as competitive as possible in this GP.