Marc Marquez says his main focus for Sunday's MotoGP German Grand Prix will be consolidating his 41-point championship lead, rather than solely aiming for a ninth-straight Sachsenring win.
Since the 2010 125cc race, Marquez has gone unbeaten across all three classes at the German Grand Prix in both qualifying and the race.
After securing his ninth-successive Sachsenring pole on Saturday with a new lap record of 1:20.270s, Marquez admits it is “easy to think” about pushing to keep his German record intact, but says the championship is more “important”.
“It's easy to think [about extending Sachsenring win tally], but at the end of the year nobody will remember who won at the Sachsenring, and everybody will remember who wins the title,” he said.
“So of course maybe tomorrow, maybe next year, but for sure will arrive the day that some day somebody will beat me here.
“But the most important thing is the championship, and we need to understand the championship [situation].
“At the moment, [Valentino] Rossi is second, [Maverick] Vinales is third, so it's [the championship] more important.”
Marquez expects the opening 10 laps of Sunday's race to be closely contested, as the unusually good weather encountered at the Sachsenring this weekend as allowed the field to close in on the Spaniard.
However, the Honda rider says the race will become “more complicated” after this point as the tyres begin to drop, and is wary of not pushing to run Jorge Lorenzo's pace at the start should the Ducati rider make yet another rapid launch off the line.
“It's true that the slipstream in Assen is more important, much more important and you feel a lot,” he added.
“Here the slipstream is not very important. You can keep your pace, you can find your rhythm, but we will see.
“Like we see in the qualy with the new tyre, everybody is fast. The first 10 laps everybody is fast, everybody have a good pace.
“Then, after lap 10, after lap 15, is when it starts to become more complicated to ride the bike, more difficult.
“We will see at the start. If Jorge starts like in Assen [where he came from 10th to second], sure, Jorge will lead the race and he will push like always. But we need to be smart and understand that the race is 30 laps.”
