One thing is certain: the Valencia weekend left a bit of a bitter taste in the mouth for Marc Márquez. While it may be true that the title had already been won, the Spaniard had wanted to close out the season with a bang in front of his home fans. Instead, the Honda rider had to deal with a crash in qualifying and another in the race. There was an aspect that conditioned the race of the seven-time world champion.
“I made the wrong tyre choice – number 93 admitted – I arrived on the grid with the soft and then I decided to opt for the medium, making a mistake. With that tyre, in FP3 I had managed to be fast, although in those conditions it was raining less.”
So, Marc prefers to look forward.
“A lot of riders crashed with the soft, so you can just imagine with the medium – he pointed out – As I said, in the warm up session, I had confidence. Unfortunately, the little bit of rain coming out of pit lane fooled me. That's okay; I made a mistake and this lesson will serve me well for the future.”
At this point, one would think that it was a good thing he had already earned the title in Japan, given the contact on Phillip Island with Zarco and this last crash.
“Today I missed battling for the Championship – Marc concluded – because if it had been the same situation as 2017, I would have chosen the same tyre as the other riders and I would have gone out on the track with a different mentality.”