During the media conference on the podium, Márquez kept making subtle hints that he still had a lot ahead of him.
“I only pushed hard for three or four laps, then I was able to ride when I saw the gap widening [two minutes] 4.8, a four high at a steady pace, with some margin, ”he said. “I had the advantage of being a little faster. This is the first race of the year that I’ve come with the intention of fighting for victory. I said that at the press conference on Thursday. The weekend was good – Friday was really good, Saturday so-so, but better today. “
Although COTA was his 13th race since his comeback at Portimao, Márquez is still struggling to regain the man-machine intimacy that made him almost unbeatable before the accident.
“I have to keep working and pushing, because the special feeling with the bike is not there yet.”
The way Marquez has ridden before requires that special relationship where the rider knows the bike so well that he knows what it is going to do before it does. This is what you need to sway on the verge of disaster without tipping over – not only do you need to be one with the bike, you need to be ahead of the bike.
Marquez bites a donut on the podium, honoring a bet before the race
Honda
Plus, Márquez doesn’t have to fully figure out Michelin’s latest rear slick just yet. The softer rear triangle was introduced early last year, so it’s practically a season behind its rivals when it comes to understanding the tire that changed MotoGP a lot.
“I can’t reach the full potential of the new tire,” he added. “The tire didn’t fall off, so I had more or less the same grip with the old tire as with the new tire. That’s why I kept a very constant pace during the race. But you can’t be fast like that – I prefer to have the first grip and then manage. “
After all, of course, his right arm and shoulder are still not at 100%. Over the weekend he commented that they are usually between 60 and 80%, never again, so he can’t attack right-handed people in his usual way because he knows he can’t save a front slip with his right elbow.
“I was on my last lap and was beaten once again and overtaken by two guys”
And Márquez likes Honda’s newest and heavily redesigned RC213V, which he tried out for the first time in Misano a week before he left for COTA.
“The engine is a good step up, but the most important step that Honda has taken is the complete bike, all of the components,” he said. “The bike is really different, it’s so different everywhere. The engine is certainly different, but so is the way the bike is made – the weight, the height, everything is different, so the bike makes it so different.
“The most important thing is that we know what is going on, because in order to fix the problem you first have to know the situation you are in. It seems like we know what we’re doing and Honda came up with something that improved rear grip quite a bit. ”In the test. Of course we had other problems, but it’s a new bike so that’s normal. But yes, the bike was better. “
Quartararo was delighted with second place on a track that could have been difficult for him – Yamaha has never won at COTA. He threw everything in the race again, just as he threw everything two weeks earlier in Misano at title rivals Pecco Bagnaia.
In the first laps he was put under a lot of pressure by Jorge Martin of Pramac Ducati, which he did not want, because if he had been mistaken for the Ducatis he could have got into trouble.
“My only solution to having a better race was to push,” he said. “I pushed, but all weekend I didn’t have Marc’s pace, especially with used tires. In the end, we achieved our main goal of making the podium.
“It’s the best second place in my career because I was a little more stressed before the start, but when you start the race, the stress is gone. I drove a really good race and I am very happy because Pecco was super strong in the last two races and scored 50 points. “
Miller leads Rins and Bagnaia by a third – his front tire is already overused
Ducati
Bagnaia’s consecutive wins at Aragon and Misano had closed the gap between the two from 70 to 48 points, with four races remaining. A big task for the Ducati rider, but far from impossible if he could beat Quartararo at the same pace.
Bagnaia started from pole position for the third race in a row, but it was taking too long to get his rear tires up to temperature and Marquez was already three seconds behind when he took off.
“So I tried to manage the first part of the race well,” he said. “I saw that some drivers, like Marc and Fabio, were quick and others pushed a little too much with the rear tire. So, I said, just wait a bit: try to set your pace, because at the start, with drivers in front of you, it’s harder to brake where you want.
“When I saw that other drivers were having problems, I improved my pace. I wasn’t as fast as Marc or Fabio, but I saw that the podium was there. I have to thank Jack [Miller, his Ducati team-mate] that let me pass He struggled a bit, but he did a great teamwork. “