Marc Marquez explains Portimao crashes | "No stress, waiting for my moment”
It may have ended with zero points in the grand prix, but Marc Marquez described Portimao as a ‘good w꧂eekend’ 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5最新开奖结果:Marc Marquez’s second MotoGP ev🌟ent 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 set-up.
That box was ticked when the eight-time world champion was fastest in t♛he dusty opening practice session, third in the afternꦆoon 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, notꦯably including the hཧome 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 theꦗn the race clash with Francesco Bagnaia.
The Bagnaia ‘racing incident’ aside, which occurred 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 Mar🌳quez, who rode from eighth to second in the Saturday Sprint and had just overtaken Bagnaia for fifth place when they tangled lat🤡e in the grand prix.
“It’s true that I crashed three times in practice, but all three crashes were - we cann🉐ot say stupid cra🌊shes - but crashes that I can avoid with more kilometres [experience].
“Why? Because the qualify🌄ing fall was due to engaging the rear device t𓄧oo early, which is still something that needs to come in a more automatic way.
“Then in the warm up, my foot sli🉐pped 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 Repsol Honda rider. “It’s true the feeling was not the best with the front tyreꦐ. But no stress. I was just waiting for my moment.
“My m♌oment 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 better with used tyres.
“But t𒀰hen I arrived at turn🍒 five and I 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 podium in only his second pre꧑mier-class grand pr🌳ix.
Asked about the 🧸dif🔯ference between learning a new MotoGP bike as a teenage rookie and switching machines as a 31-year-old, Marquez replied:
“When you are younger, you learn🦩 faster. But especially when you arrive 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 there are some automatic things t✅hat I forget [to do correctly on the Ducati].
“But these th🦹ings will arrive. Because every time I🌱 feel better and better.”
The Portimao DNF means that Marquez has slipped to sixth in the world championship, 33 points from Sunday’s winner Jorge Martin (Pr𒉰amac Ducati).
On the bright side, unlike a year ago when he speared into the side of Miguel Oliveira, injuring them both, Marquez leaves Portimao wꦡithout any physical consequences following the Bagnaia incident.
“No, no, just an impact on the sho💛ulder, but nothing important,” said Marquez, who was ch𒀰ecked 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 until 20ཧ19, then added a seventh victory in 2021.
Peter has been in theꦜ 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.
