Marquez: No pressure to extend winning streak

Reigning MotoGP world champion Marc Marquez has played down the pressure and expectation to continue his scintillating start to 2014 at the legendary Le Mans track this weekend.

The Spaniard is bidding to become the first rider since Giacomo Agostini in 1972 to win the season’s opening five races in France on Sunday.

And success in Sunday’s fifth round would make him the first rider since Movistar Yamaha rival Valentino Rossi to win five consecutive premier class races since 2008.

Marquez arrives in Le Mans in the form of his life having taken four wins from four poles in 2014.

The 21-year-old wasn’t even born the last time a rider won the opening four premier class races in 1992.

Aussie Mick Doohan achieved that, but Marquez said he felt no pressure to continue his record-breaking start to the defence of his crown.

He said: “In Jerez I felt a little bit more pressure but not from the media or the fans. It was an important weekend for me to know my real level in a track that I have struggled on a little bit in the past. It was a little more pressure but only because I put it on myself.”

Marquez also baulked at themsuggestion that he would contemplate backing off in races to keep it more entertaining for fans.

When Doohan was dominating MotoGP back in the mid-nineties, he was once asked about his demolition of his rivals and famously retorted with the quote: “What do you want me to do, slow down?”

Marquez added: “To arrive the moment when you slow down is very difficult, plus it is the beginning of the championship, so now it is better to take the points. In Argentina I saw that at the end of the race I was stronger and waited a little but in Jerez.

“But I knew Dani (Pedrosa) was so strong in Jerez, so I pushed a lot when I saw he was in fourth place. I have won four races but will try to continue like this because who knows what will happen in the future.”