Alex Marquez: “I was sh*tting my pants!” | Marini “Not dangerous, just scary” | Miller “Have a gander before cutting back”
With hindsight Marquez, who was under pressur𝓀e from Luca Marini and Johann Zarco, admitted it might have been better to settle for a top five.
But the scene of his downfall, the apex of turn two, was also the last place h❀e expected to lose the front of his GP22.
“I was pushing in a good way until that point,” said Marquez, who had crashed out of Saturday’s sprint after contact with Brad Binder. “I was suffering already a little bit w🌸ith the front tyre, but not at that point.
“I was expecting to lose the front everywhere apart from there. So I was too confident in that point. I gꦏot in a little bit more [tight to the kerb], I touched the white line also a little bit more, there’s a little bump and I lost the front.
“A shame because we were fighting♔ for a podium. Maybe today, I needed to say, ‘OK, take a top🍰 five’. But it was a podium and I tried for it."
Alex Marquez: “I was sh*tting my pants!”
Earlier in the race, Marquez had a big scare in the turn 1 braking zone when, unable to scrub off enougꩵh speed, he was force♈d to try and weave between brother Marc and Luca Marini, then inside KTM’s Jack Miller.
After running𒁃 a little wide at turn one, the #73 made contact with Miller as he pulled his Ducati back towards the racing line. Both fortunately remained upright.
“It 🍒was ♏really, really strange,” Marquez said. “But it’s what we always say, the slipstream absorbs you.
“I was not really late on the brakes because, as you saw, I didn't turn too far [from the apex]ও. And I was braking with the same pressure as always.
“But w꧅hen you lose all the downforce and have two bikes [ahead]. It was like impossible. ‘Vroom’ [I went between them].
“I said ‘f**k’! I was shitting my pants, ♋honestly!”
Luca Marini: “Not so dangerous, just scary”
VR46 Ducati rider Marini admitted it had been a scary moment as Marquez whizzed past, but was impressed by how he then got th🦋e bike stoppꦫed.
“With the slipstream in the braking of Turn 1, it's very difficult. Also because the bike starts to shake a lot," Marin💯i said.
“I didn't expect that he could stop the bike, so he made a fantastic ‘pass’. Also the soft rear tyre helped him a lot, because I saw him pushing with the rear brake𓄧, try to keep the bike [from going too wide], and it worked.
“It was not so dangerous. Justꦅ scary, because it was really fast.”
Jack Miller: “Have a gander before cutting back”
Miller a♛greed it’s easy to get caught out under braking from the highest top speeds of the season but wasn’t pleased with the way Marquez tried to cut back after💞 running wide, initiating their contact.
"If you get a double slipstream and then you lift the rear going into tuܫrn one, yeah, it'𒁏s an easy thing to do," said the Australian.
“But you generally always have a gander at where you are coming back into. It's not like he missed the line by half a metre [at turn 1], he m🔯issed it by three. And then cut back, very similar to what he did on the first corner [of the Sprint].
“Nothing muꦏch I could do. I was just trying to avoid the carnage. It is what it is. He stayed on the bike, so that’s a positive. And I didn't get a Long Lap penalty, so that's positive too!”
Binder had re🍰ceived a Long Lap penalty after&n🍬bsp;contact with Marquez sent the Ducati rider down at turn one of the Sprint.
Marini and Miller we🔯nꦇt on to finish fourth and seventh respectively.
Peter has been in the paddock for 20 years and has seen Valentino Rossi come a🍸nd go. He is at the forefronꩵt of the Suzuki exit story and Marc Marquez’s injury issues.
