Marc Marquez has called for “respect for all” MotoGP riders, after criticism of younger brother Alex Marquez surfaced during the Assen weekend.
The eight-time World Champion won both races at Assen after being pressured by brother Alex in the Sprint and Marco Bezzecchi in the main race.
However, the younger Marquez faced criticism for failing to overtake his older brother after Saturday’s race, despite appearing to be the quicker of the pair.
After Bezzecchi was also unable to find a race-winning overtake on the Spanish rider during the main race, Marquez called for “respect” for all MotoGP riders.
“It was really difficult,” Marquez said about Bezzecchi’s challenge.
“And coming from this question, I want to say to the people that they need to respect all the riders.
“Because yesterday in the media scrum they start to say your brother didn’t attack you as the other riders. Even some mechanics told me on social media people start to talk about things.
“And today Marco, why didn’t he attack me? In the end, if the front rider is in a very equal level, in this race track that is super narrow, you cannot attack the front riders.
“So, yesterday I defended Alex in the best way possible and today I defended Marco in the best way possible.
Marquez admitted his superior braking allowed him to take victory in both races, and reiterated all MotoGP riders “want to win.”
“And I knew that they were faster in that Turn 11/12, which is the fastest area and the narrowest area, narrow corners, and then if you are on the good line they cannot attack you.
“I was just strong on the brake points, so I defended in a very good way. In that way, I took 37 points.
“But one more time: respect the MotoGP riders because all of them defend their colours, defend their teams and all the grid wants to win, but the problem is only one can win.”
Marquez: ‘I raced with exactly the same set-up as Mugello’ in Assen MotoGP Triumph
Marquez continued his dominance by recording his third consecutive victory, and he will look to keep his streak going as he heads to the Sachsenring, a circuit where he has won 11 times in the past.
The Spanish rider said he raced with the same bike as he did when he took his victories at Mugello, but revealed Ducati would revert back to the standard aero set-up ahead of the German GP.
“Honestly speaking I raced with exactly the same set-up as Mugello, we didn’t touch anything,” Marquez said.
“Just the biggest difference was the aerodynamics, but it was just because I crashed with one bike in FP1, on the third lap, and then I jumped to the second bike with the new aero.
“I get used to it and I said ‘ok, we keep it’, because one of my strong points of my riding style is getting used to the situation and getting used to the bike.
“Then of course in Sachsenring we will come back [to the standard aero] and retry again because it’s not very clear that it’s better or worse.”
READ MORE – Marc Marquez triumphs to take Assen MotoGP race victory
