English
Italiano
Saturday at Assen did not go the way Marc Marquez had expected. A crash in qualifying relegated him to 7th place on the grid, then his Sprint lasted little more than a lap before another crash. Logically, the Team Gresini rider was not in the best of moods."It was my mistake," he admits, " Already on the first lap I had touched that curb a little bit and felt there was a dip, but I had made that line because I was defending myself from attacks. In the second one, however, I was behind the others, I lost the entry point, I knew I was going to go on the curb but I didn't expect that hit. The bike jumped and I lost the front. It is a mistake that makes me angry with myself because I should have avoided it."
You also went down in qualifying.
"I was doing a fast lap and I hadn't thought about overtaking at that point, which is very fast. Aleix, however, braked a lot to prepare for the entry into the corner and I went inside because it was the only solution. I wasn't particularly faster than usual, but there's a small pothole there, the same one that dropped Fernandez and many riders in Moto2. I was lucky not to get hurt."
Had you been unnerved by what happened on the lap before, when everyone stopped to look for a slipstream?
"Everyone waits for a slipstream and when I came out of the pits I knew it would be like that, but I didn't push at that moment because I was 4th and the others all behind. It's normal, it's not the first time they do it to me or I do it to someone."
Isn't that going too far?
"At certain circuits, like here and Phillip Island, that's how it is, that's racing. Today a lot of people tried to follow me, last year I was doing it. Pecco made a perfect strategy, Martin on the other hand managed to take a perfect reference. If you don't disturb the others ... you have to survive."
Without the crash, where do you think you could have finished?
"In 4th or 5th place, or at least I think so."
Does having lost important championship points make you angry?
"It makes me angry most of all to have made a mistake, especially because it was 100 percent mine and it was avoidable. I already knew that this year all the stars should line up for you to fight for the World Championship, because right now there are two riders who are superior to me."
What do you expect for tomorrow?
"After this difficult day, to come away from Assen with better results. The feeling in the saddle is good and that makes me happy. I ride well, although there are 3 riders faster than me and I think I can fight to be in the top 5 tomorrow."
Looking at the data, what does Bagnaia do better than the others?
"He flies all over the track, he is very fast. I already noticed last year and 2 years ago that he was, he is incredible in the fast right turns."
