Gresini racer, Marc Marquez, has not ruled out the possibility of fighting for the 2024 MotoGP world championship title.

However, Marquez stressed that he must not make the same mistake as he did in

The 31-year-old is now just 53 points behind championship leader Jorge Martin (Pramac).

The result came after Marquez recovered from ninth on the grid in difficult conditions to claim his second Grand Prix win of the season.

With 259 points left to play for over the remaining seven rounds, and a good track for Marquez to face, he has become a bigger threat in the title race.

But after a crash in qualifying 2 (Q2) that left him ninth in Misano, plus another mistake on the final lap that cost him points, Marquez said he had to improve on these mistakes if he wanted to be a contender.

“You never know,” Marquez said when asked if the world title seemed more realistic now, as reported by Crash.

“Especially when you go outside Europe, to Asia. There you sometimes know what the conditions are like.”

“But, the problem is that I continue with my mentality. If we want to fight for the championship, we cannot start ninth on the grid.”

“We cannot make the same mistakes I made in practice and qualifying. We have to keep going, keep improving, and that’s what I’ll try to do in the two weeks here.”

Reigning world champion Francesco Bagnaia ( Ducati ), who trails Martin by seven points after San Marino, said Marquez cannot be ruled out as a title contender now.

He pointed to his fluctuating points situation at Misano as evidence.

Bagnaia insists that his Ducati teammate Enea Bastianini cannot be forgotten in the title fight.

“You never know,” said Bagnaia when asked about Marquez’s title prospects.

“Look at my situation. I was 26 points behind yesterday after the sprint and now I am seven points behind.”

“So, everything can change quickly. Same thing with Marc and Enea.”

“We know Marc’s potential and it looks like he’s rediscovered what he had in the first part of the championship.”

“So, never take Marc out of the title challengers. And never take Enea out of the title challengers. Nothing. We will always try to do what we did today.”

For Marquez, having won the last two grands prix, he feels like he is approaching the level of sustained competitiveness he showed in 2019 when he won his sixth premier class title.

However, he said there were still some weak points he had to overcome.

“Yeah, ’19… ’21 is not bad,” said Marquez.

“There were periods in Aragon, Austin, Misano in 2021 that were not bad.”

“But, it is true that with the normal conditions we experienced this weekend.”

“But I felt that I could play with my body, I started to play more with the bike.”

“There are still some weak points, for example Turn 11, 12 in Misano where Pecco was very fast. We need to understand for the next weekend. I will not be faster than him, if we can be close to him.”

“Still, there are some things to learn, but every time you have confidence, you can play more with your body and become faster.”