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Seventh place in the Sprint, after getting a knock with Jack Miller, didn’t fool Marc Marquez who set off to get the best possible finish, but without any illusions.
A crash on lap 6, at Bucine, the corner that leads onto the straight while he was in fifth position behind his brother Alex, brought his Grand Prix to an end leaving him dumbfounded and disappointed, as the television cameras mercilessly showed when, jumping up like a cat, he turned towards his Honda half-buried in the gravel, making a gesture with his arms outstretched that seemed to be a silent scream: why?
“I didn't expect to finish the race like this and especially so soon - confessed Marc, who added - I was trying to control myself during the race. I put the soft tyre, but I didn't attack in the beginning just to keep the tyre and I knew that my position was 6-7th, and I was already better than that.”
A moment's pause, and then, as if in a television slow motion, Marquez explained the dynamics of the facts.
“But I had a big shaking - already in the first lap I had a big locking on turn 10 that I nearly crashed and I didn't understand why. Similar to Portimao. Then I had another locking on that turn on the brakes. I went wide, and that was when I made my mistake. I didn't lean more than usual, but it was more dirty out of the line and I lost the front. Maybe I could have saved it, but when you go with the mentality of not losing even a tenth of a second or the slipstream of those ahead of you (brother Alex, with a Ducati, ed.). Next week, at the Sachsenring, we will have another chance."
In the meantime, however, Marquez added another crash, the seventh, in the three Grands Prix in which he has taken part.
“We have to take more risks than others to be there and this hurts all the Honda riders, in general, and that's why we have so many crashes - the Spaniard continued to explain - All the Honda riders are forced to take too many risks and it can't go on like this. We are the ones who crash the most, especially in the race, because the tires get hot and it's more difficult when we are in a group. Both Mir and I are winning riders and we want to be there, but to be so we have to risk more than the others. I wish the best recovery to both Mir and Rins, and especially Rins, who has a more serious injury, because we need them to continue developing the project. When you're at the limit, like Portimao, today or in the future, one small mistake and you crash. today it was my turn to crash, and I was lucky not to get hurt. Friday was Mir. Yesterday was Rins. I wish the best recovery for both of them. Today was me. Lucky for me, I escaped from that crash. I was trying to control myself a lot here because I know that a crash with these high speeds normally you get injured, like Mir and Rins. Honda has riders with a winning mentality and if you put riders with a winning mentality and you don’t have the chance to be there, the problem is that you will crash more and more times because we're pushing more than the others to be on the lap times. And this is what happened.
At this point what can be done?
“Immediately after the race I went into the truck in the back of the box. Then I breathed hard before talking to the TVs. I still have a contract with Honda for this year and next and my commitment is maximum. I still have the same mentality, but it's also true that if I see that I can't make it and that we continue on the same line, then I'll have to take a step back and, instead of looking at the top five, maybe look at the top ten."
He's not happy, Marc and it shows.
“Clearly this incident bothered me much more than the one at Le Mans. At Le Mans at least I finished the race and got some information. I have said several times that these incidents don't change our situation in the championship, because we are struggling and my prediction here was to finish sixth or seventh. And I think we were on our way to doing that, but it bothered me because I crashed too early, with a mistake that could have been avoided. We have to keep moving forward and next week we will have another chance."
In the end you were the only Honda rider left on the track.
“Without taking anything away from Nakagami, but Rins and Mir arrived from Suzuki where they were winners. I was in Taka's condition last year, but now I feel physically fine. And when you see yourself twelfth it's difficult mentally, because you want to be in front. And then you risk more, you crash and get injured. This is the situation that we must reverse to try to be more fast, and we must remain confident. Last year here I was in a similar level as Nakagami because I was struggling a lot with my physical condition. Now I'm ready about my physical condition. And as I said yesterday, in 10 laps you can be so precise, so concentrated and use a lot of your skills and your physical condition to finish the race. Or to do a single lap like in the qualifying practice. But to do 23 laps in the race is impossible. The Ducati riders are riding very fast. This increases the level. And I was much faster than last year with a very similar bike. So this is the only thing that makes me a bit more calm.”
You told us that you had asked for something new at Le Mans and that it didn’t arrive here.
“Yes, it didn't arrive, there was no time. We didn’t even do the perfect setup here. You always want more, and in the end our job, here at the circuit, the job of the whole team, is to get information, pass ideas on to the engineers in Japan. They are the ones driving the project. It is clear that if you don't bring anything new, you can't do tests. Sometimes it's hard to know what's going on in Japan, but at the moment, we've only received one chassis since the start of the season. We would like to reduce the gap from the other manufacturers, but if we don't have anything new it's impossible".
The Honda riders, including you, crash often. Can we say that it is an unsafe motorcycle?
“An unsafe Honda? It depends on the rider’s ambition. It's reliable and safe. It depends: if you want to get from eighth to tenth it is, but coming 15 seconds behind the winner… As I said: when I was physically limited I could do it, but when you see that you can do what your mind asks it's difficult. When you are physically good and you see that you have the speed on one lap, when you see that you can ride well, when you see that you can do whatever your mind wants, it gets harder. If you're fourth and what do you do, do you drop to sixth or seventh place? No".
Are you very worried?
“The first to be worried are in Honda, they want to make the breakthrough, Mir had crashed 12 times in one season and this year he's already crashed 12 times... Many observers say: Márquez crashes often. But the reality is that all the Honda riders crash often, and that's what worries us a lot and that we have to try to change for the future. The more you crash, the more chances of injury there are. But I keep going, I keep pushing and we need to be together and work with the team to change the situation for the future. For these next races, the second part of the season, and especially for the next year.”
