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Record-man Marc not certain of GP title

ALAN BALDWIN

LONDON, England - Marc Marquez talks about fighting for his second successive MotoGP title as if there were some uncertainty about the outcome.

The fact that he's won 10 of 11 races so far in the 2014 season - his amazing run of success ending only this month in the Czech Republic - does not appear to have changed his thinking.

The 21-year-old is running away with the championship faster than you can say 'Repsol Honda', or 'Spanish winner', and yet he refused to tempt fate ahead of Sunday's British MotoGP at Silverstone.

'NOT MINE YET'

"No, it's not already won," the champion told Reuters, after performing a promotional burn-out on a pedestrian bridge across the River Thames on Wednesday, when it was put to him that it was merely a case of adjusting the crown.

"All the people say 'yeah, yeah, you will win' but still there are seven races left which are quite a lot. You can lose many points, you can win many points. We need to be focused - if we have some problems like in Brno we need to be intelligent and think about the championship."

Marquez has a lead of 77 points, equal to three race wins, over Honda team mate and compatriot Dani Pedrosa who won the last round in Brno. If that result came as something of a surprise, Marquez made light of it - joking afterwards that at least people would now stop asking him whether he thought he could win every race this season.

So, with that inconvenience out of the way, did he think he could win all the rest of them?

"I don't know," he laughed. "I don't think so. I think some more races I will struggle or some riders will be faster than me but what I can say is that I will fight for the title.

"That's now the main target for me and just to stay focused to get it."

NO SURPRISE THERE

In Indianapolis earlier in August 2014 Marquez had become the first man in 17 years to win 10 successive races, as well as the youngest, and the first since Italian great Giacomo Agostini in 1970 to win the opening 10 of a championship.

A precocious talent, he became the youngest MotoGP champion the previous year and also took titles in 125cc and Moto2 on his way up.

If Formula 1 is astonished by the prospect of Dutch driver Max Verstappen making his GP debut at 17 in 2015, then Marquez is less surprised.

"I heard that and it's incredible that a guy of 17 will be in F1 but if he's ready why not?," asked the Spaniard. "I started at four years old. Professional drivers also start at four with a kart."

With Honda coming into F1 as McLaren's engine partner in 2015 and Yamaha's MotoGP great Valentino Rossi once toying with a switch to Ferrari, Marquez could also be tempted to give it a try just for fun one day.

"I know MotoGP is my world but to try some day an F1 car would be a nice experience," he said.

That all remains a long way in the future, if ever.

Silverstone is the immediate challenge and the Spaniard has yet to win there in the top category, despite qualifying on pole in 2013. That race started badly when he fell in Sunday morning's warm-up and ultimately finished second to Yamaha's double champion Jorge Lorenzo.

"Last year, during the weekend, it was perfect. I was strong, very focused," he recalled, "but on Sunday morning I had a crash and dislocated a shoulder. It's a circuit I like, I always feel good. So we will try to fight for the victory."
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