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by Gianmaria Rosati
It wasn't the Sunday he was expecting. A disappointing day at Misano for Marc Marquez, who ended up playing a damage limitation game. After qualifying, in which he'd made it clear he could fight for the win, it only took a few laps of the race for him to realise this wouldn't be the case, eventually settling for fourth. Daniel Pedrosa clearly gave him a hand, taking precious points away from Rossi in terms of the title fight.
A Sunday in which you were calculating.
“Before racing at Misano, I expected to lose more points, in the end it's only seven and this is the important thing. In this championship, consistency is the key. We'll have other chances to go beyond the limit, while today was all about management”.
How worried are you about finishing behind Valentino?
“It's normal, in the sense that both he and Jorge are obliged to take risks and stay ahead. At Silverstone, I had the chance to finish in front of both of them, but I made a mistake, while today I was slower. The fact remains that, as long as I'm only losing three or seven points, it's not a problem, while it would have been if he'd won today and I came fourth. We still have 43 points to manage”.
Pedrosa was a great help today.
“Dani's win is important for me and my position, but that's not all. For example, this was the first weekend in which I could compare my data to his, considering his speed right from the first practices. I think it's also positive for the team. If Dani had come second, between me and Valentino, it would have been a problem, but today he had a great day and was able to get from the back to the front, winning with a margin”.
Analysing the race in more detail, the tyre factor also came into play for the Spaniard.
“Today, in terms of the tyres we can say we selected the right compound but the new carcass brought by Michelin has been the main problem all weekend. I was never able to find the right confidence or even the limit. I rode as if it were FP4, while the others were much faster, especially Dani".
At one point it looked like you had a little more than Jorge.
“In one part of the race I was performing well and got close to Lorenzo, but then I started to realise that if I continued like that, I'd be more likely to crash than reach the podium. So I decided to hold fourth. We get new types of tyre each race, at one track you can be ten seconds behind and then at another you can win with the same margin”.
What do you think about Rossi's pass on Lorenzo?
“Valentino was right on the inside, for me it was an aggressive but normal pass. When you race at your home track, you try to give more, also he knew that Jorge had great pace and so he tried to pass right away”.
Are you already thinking about Aragon?
“It's a track that better suits my riding style. I don't want to put pressure on myself but I think we'll be able to take a better result”.
Photo: Costantino Di Domenico
