Marc Marquez explains Portimao crashes | "No stress, waiting for my moment”
It may have ended with zero points in the grand prix, but Marc Marq🍎uez described Portimao as a ‘good weekend’ in which he increased his speed on the Ducati and was ‘calm’ in tꦺhe race.
It came to a dramatic conclusion, with a trio of practice crashes along the way, but 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:Marc Marquez’s second MotoGP event as a Gresini Ducati rider s♔aw another step 𝐆in speed.
With no pre-season testing at the circuit, the first c🥀hallenge at Portimao was to dete🃏rmine the effectiveness of his winter base set-up.
That ܫbox was ticked when the eight-time world champion was fastest in the dusty opening practice session, third in the afternoon and then fourth on Saturday morning.
“My foot slipped off the foodrest!”
Indeed, Marqu⛦ez appeared to be among the very fastest everywhere except the final sectoꦰr, notably including the home straight.
But after comple༺ting winter testing with only a single fall from his GP23, Marquez hit the ground on Friday afternoon, qualifying, warm-up and then the race clash with Francesco Bagnaia.
The Bagnaia ‘racing incident’ aside, which occurrꦗed when the Italian optimis꧃tically tried to re-pass, Marquez put his accidents down to a lack of experience with the bike.
“A good weekend. I mean, we improved the speed, which was the most important,” said Marquez, who rode from eighth to second in the Saturday Sprint🗹 and had just overtaken Bag𝄹naia for fifth place when they tangled late in the grand prix.
“It’s true that I crashed three times in practice, but all three crashes were - we cannot say stupid crashes - but crashes that ඣI can avoid with more kilometres [experience].
“Why? Because the quali🧸fying fall was due to engaging the rear device too early, which is still something that needs to come in a more automatic way.
“Then in the warm up, my foot slipped off the foodrest! And then I crashed, but without pushing because it was only my🔜 second lap. I was cruising but just my foot slid and boom, crash. And on Friday the same.”
“I was calm during the race”
After being the only GP23 rider in the top ten during 🌜the Sprint, Marquez was on course to finish three places (and over ten seconds)🍨 clear of VR46’s Marco Bezzecchi in the grand prix.
“I was calm during the race,” said the former Reps🐻ol Honda🅷 rider. “It’s true the feeling was not the best with the front tyre. But no stress. I was just waiting for my moment.
“My moment arrived in the last laps, where I would start to be faster and faster, and I was even improving my lap times because I ൩feel better with used tyres.
“But then I arrived at turn five 🌌and Iꦫ crashed [with Bagnaia]…”
Prior to the Bagnaia incident, both of the multi-time MotoGP champions had been overtaken by rookie Pedro Acosta, who finished on the po🍎dium in only his second premier-class grand prix.
🎉Asked about the difference between learning a new MotoGP bike as a teenage rookie and switching machines as a 31-year-old, Marﷺquez replied:
“When you are younger, you learn faster. But especially when you arrive in a new category, everything is new. You don't ha💮ve habits.
“If you check, [my] mistakes arrive on the time attack. Why? Because time attack, you just go by instinct. It’s w♈hat I said in Qatar. When I go by instinct, still there are some automatic things that I forget [to do correctly on the Ducati].
“🌊But these things will arrive. Because every time I feel better and better.”
The Portim🃏ao DNF means that Marquez has slipped to sixth in the world championship, 33 points from Sunday’s winner Jorge Martin (Pramac Ducati).
On the bright side, unlike a year ago when he speared into the side of Miguel Oliveira, injuring them both, Marquez leaves Portima🎐o without any physical consequences♚ following the Bagnaia incident.
“No, no, just an impact on the shoulder, but nothing important,” said Marquez, who was checked in th𝄹e medical centre after bringing the bike back in 16th.
Round three takes place at COTA, where Marquez was unbeaten a𒊎s a Repsol Honda 🌞rider from 2013 until 2019, then added a seventh victory in 2021.
Peter has been in the paddock for 20 years and has sജeen Valentino Rossi come and go. He is at the forefront of ꧋the Suzuki exit story and Marc Marquez’s injury issues.
