Marc Márquez came close to winning for the first time in MotoGP with a Ducati bike. This Sunday, the Gresini rider finished second in the Spanish GP, behind Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati) after an exciting duel between the two.
The Spaniard explained in a press conference that he launched the attack on the winner at the right moment: ‘I knew that that moment, the first overtake, was the time to do it, because if not the front temperature goes up and then I cannot stop very well the bike. It was a very limit situation, but when I was there on turn 10 I had a flash from Valencia when [Jorge] Martín did a similar situation to me and I fly. It’s true that maybe it’s not your mistake, but you take zero points. So I prefer to pick up the bike, to lose the position and then to try again in the next lap. But it was already too late for my front tyre temperature’.
Asked if he is comfortable with the intensity of the fight, Márquez said: ‘I’m one of the guys who says, «This is racing», and some times it can happen. Today is true that I was smart enough and I gave up in the correct time, because if not, or Pecco, or me, or both, we would crash. Because in the end when I went in turn 10 and I received the impact on the arm and the leg from his front wheel, in that moment it’s two things: or I crash because I lose the rear, or he will crash like yesterday. So I just gave up, I picked up the bike and I closed the gas to don’t have the highside. Yes, I lost the position, but I took 20 points, so some times not only the rider who creates the situation takes the responsability of all the actions. Some times the rider who receives the impact also can avoid and this time I was smart enough to avoid that crash and just react well from that contact from Pecco’.
In the 2021 Aragon GP, #93 also fought for victory with Bagnaia, and from that case, he commented: ‘It was a long time ago. Unfortunately in the last three years he is more used to have this fight for the victory. Of course it was my first real fight for the victory in the last two years in dry conditions. So for me the most important this weekend is that the speed was there. The most important on the race is that even with that five laps when I lost many positions, I had the speed to overtake, the gap between me and Pecco was more or less one second and I had the speed to catch him. I had the speed to try the overtake. Unfortunately the last two laps when the front tyre temperature went up you couldn’t do anything and I had some locks in the front. I didn’t give up completely, but I didn’t make that extra push to fight with him because the risk was to high to have three crashes in a row in the race’.