On The Record: Marc Marquez, 2016 MotoGP World Champion

The start of the MotoGP season was the most difficult point, maybe the most difficult preseason in my career. The feeling was, 'Okay, I have an uphill in front, and now we must find a way.'

I remembered saying to Honda engineers, "I believe in you, so I will change my mentality for the first races. But in the second part of the season, I need your help." In the second half of the season, this help arrived. They did a great job with the electronics, especially. We improved the acceleration, and now we have a competitive bike.

When you are leading, you can approach the championship in a different way. You can be happy with second or third place. When I made a mistake at Le Mans trying to push more than what I could feel on the bike and lost the lead to the championship, I said, "Okay, if I do not feel, I will not push."

I won in Germany and then, when we started the second part of the season, I finished sometimes off the podium, and I started to become a little bit nervous. Emilio [Alzamora, Marquez's manager] and Santi [Hernandez, Marquez's crew chief] always said, "You still have a big advantage. Aragon will arrive." That was a key point, especially for the team.

Today, I felt normal. My friend, Jose, said, “If something happens, we will be in turn three.” I said, “Forget this. We will see in Australia.”

When I saw, 'Lorenzo out,' everything became crazy in my head. I made a few mistakes, but the key point is, in the beginning of the race, I was really quiet. When Valentino [Rossi] overtook me three or four times, he braked too deep and went wide. I said, 'I don’t want this battle,' I need to go.

I pushed at the maximum for four or five laps, and that was enough. Valentino made a mistake, and then I just managed the distance between Jorge [Lorenzo] and me.

Every year is really hard, and every year, you do your maximum. But this year, the pressure that I felt, especially at the beginning of the season, was really, really high.

I feel more pressure, but I also feel extra motivation. This combination keeps me really focused. From Thursday to Sunday, I was focused on the bike, focused on the my team, and this was the key.

Honestly, when I passed the finish line, I was like, “Okay, there will be no T-shirts, no nothing.” But they always believe in me. Some of them were crying. It was amazing.

(Matthew's original story appeared on www.motoamerica.com)