After a good first start, then interrupted by the accident with Pedrosa and Savadori’s motorcycle, Marquez did not find the right confidence with his Honda and finished the race in eighth place behind Alex Rins’ Suzuki. He also had to take criticism from Aleix Espargarò because of a contact in the hectic phase of the opening.
“These are things that happen, contacts in the race are frequent, especially after a start, when everyone approaches the corner entrance,” explained the eight-time world champion – it happened to me too. I just thought Aleix couldn’t hold the curve and when I saw the gap I went in. It was certainly an evaluation mistake at the first start, I would not have expected such a strong contact. At the second start I think he made a mistake; I had already entered the trajectory. “
At the first start in front of the red flag you seemed to have a very fast pace, then you lost it on the second start, what happened?
“At the first start the feeling was very good, I started aggressively and the grip was good. After the red flag we naturally changed the tires and the feeling was gone, I couldn’t feel any grip on the rear wheel. But I don’t want to justify myself by blaming the tires, we all use the same compounds, different tires may have had an effect, but I’ve also landed broadly, so now we have to look at the data and analyze what happened look ahead to the next race. “
One of your strengths has always been your ability to recover from an unfavorable starting position, what went wrong?
“Obviously I haven’t found my best form yet, I’m not angry, but there is certainly some frustration. In qualifying we had good pace and the start from eighth on the grid is not the best, but in the race we drove slower than in the last few days, the lack of grip at the rear certainly affects both brakes and acceleration, so we have to now also work on this aspect. “
Did you have any pain during the race?
“I still have constant pain in my shoulder, however now it’s more of a constant than sudden stitches, but that will certainly also affect my performance, i am not yet at one hundred percent of my potential “.