Marc Marquez explains Portimao crashes | "No stress, waiting for my moment”
It may have ended with zero points in the grand prix, but Mar🦩c Marquez described Portimao as🅘 a ‘good weekend’ in which he increased his speed on the Ducati and was ‘calm’ in the 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 saw another step in speed.
With no pre-season testing at the circuit, the first challenge at Portimao was to determine the effectiveness of his winter base setℱ-up.
That box was ticked when the eight-time world cha꧙mpion 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,🐼 Marquez appeared to be among the very fastest everywhere except the final sector, notably including the home straight.
But after completing 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 F♐rancesco Bagnaia.
The Bagnaia ‘racing incident’ aside, which occurred when the Italian optimistically tried to re-pass, Marquez put his accidents down to a lack of experien⛦ce 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 Bagnaia for fifth place when they tangled late in the grand prix𒆙.
“It’s true that I crashed thr👍ee times 🔯in practice, but all three crashes were - we cannot say stupid crashes - but crashes that I can avoid with more kilometres [experience].
“Why? Because the qualifying fall was due꧙ to engaging the rear device too early, which is sti𝓀ll 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 sec๊onds) clear of VR46’s Marco Bezzecchi in the grꩵand prix.
“I was calm during the race,” said the former Repsol 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 feel be♌tter with used tyres.
“But then I arrived at turn five and🌜 I crashed [with Bagnaia]…”
Prior to the Bagnaia incident, both of the multi-time MotoGP champions had been overt🐲aken by rookie Pedro Acosta, who finished on the podium in only his second premier-class gra𒉰nd prix.
Asked about the difference between learning a 🍌new MotoGP bike as a teenage rookie and switching machin♊es as a 31-year-old, Marquez replied:
“When you are younger, you learn faster. But especially when you arr๊ive in a new category, everything is new. You don't have habits.
“If you check, [my] mistakes arrive on the time attack. Why? Because time attack, you just go by instinct. It’s what I said in Qatar. When I go by instinct, still the🐓re are some automatic things that I forget [to do correctly on the Ducati].
“But these things will arriꦅve. Because every time I 🍒feel better and better.”
The Portimao DNF means that Marquez has slipped to sixth i⛎n 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 Portimao without any physical consequences following the Bagnaia incident.
“No, no, just an impact on the shoulder, but not🐷hing important,” said Marquez, who was checked in the medical centre after bringing the bike back in 16th.
Round three takes place at COTA, where Marquez was unbeaten as a Repsol Honda rider from 2013 u꧒ntil 2019, then added a seventh victory in 2021.
Peter has been in the paddock for 20 years and has♊ seen Valentino Rossi come and go. He is at the forefront of the Suzuki exit story and Marc Marquez’s injury issues.
