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It was a complicated Saturday for Marc Marquez, who to the difficulties in qualifying that saw him start 7th from the third row, added a crash while fighting in 4th position with two laps to go in the sprint. About the championship he prefers not to think too much, although Bastianini's victory today knocked him off one position in the standings, he is now 4th behind the three GP24s of Bagnaia, Martin and Enea. After all, the Spaniard has been forced to "save the weekend" for several races, and as he himself pointed out, "that's not how you win World Championships." However, the Spanish champion looks at the glass half full, the sensations on the bike have improved with the hard front, the most quoted tire ahead of tomorrow's race.
"In truth it was a positive day, today we did not suffer as we did at the beginning of the weekend. But I prefer to finish with this feeling rather than as if I had been suffering all weekend. The crash was a combination of things," explained Marc, "I was very satisfied with my race because my goal was to stay in the top five and I was there, but I don't count Bagnaia's crash. The feeling on the bike kept improving but to race like that I mounted the hard on the front, a choice that took me to the limit especially on the left side. In the last laps when the leading group distanced me the temperature of the front tire dropped, with the hard maybe the grip is better but it's difficult to maintain the temperature because the tire doesn't move. So I touched the white line slightly, tried to get back in but without warning I lost the front. The race pace was very fast, the pace of my opponents today was, and as the last races show mistakes happen to everyone."
Pecco and Martin pointed out how much the rear tire grip pushes on the front in corners, is that a problem, what can the rider do?
"For me it's the opposite, I've never ridden GP24s but on the GP23 we lack grip on corner entry and we have to figure out how to adjust. That's why in FP1 I started distant and step by step I improved, but then there are cases like today. Some people might say that by now you should be used to the Ducatis but starting the weekend in the right way is important."
On the Honda you said that with the aerodynamics and the lowerers you couldn't ride the way you wanted to, you couldn't take advantage of your 'magic,' is this also true for the Ducatis?
"Yes, especially in braking points and corner entry, you are forced to do what the bike requires you to do and not what you want to do. If you look back to the past, riders like Stoner and Pedrosa used to enter corners sliding with the rear tire. Now you can't do that anymore, you kill the aerodynamics and everything gets complicated."
Are you still thinking about the championship? You made mistakes but everything is still possible, even your opponents can make them as well.
"No, as I said we have chances, we have points, but as I said already in Assen I am not in a position to fight for the title. Having unrealistic expectations results in frustration. You don't believe me, but to fight for a world championship you have to be consistent and fast. Now we have become more consistent but we still lack speed. We've been saving Sunday's race at the last minute since Le Mans. You can save some, others you won't be able to, in others you will make mistakes, but that's not how you win a world championship. We have been picking up five to six seconds, if not more, at the end of the race for four races. Right now there are three riders who are consistently faster than us, including Bastianini, who as he showed today can be very competitive.There is not much we can do about it, let's try to survive and finish in the top places in the championship."
At the beginning of the year it seemed that the difference between the GP23 and GP24 was less.
"Without having tried both it is impossible to know for sure. I am working as best as I can, but there are faster and more consistent riders right now."
You also witnessed some contacts, the first in Turn 1 between Morbidelli and Bezzecchi.
"What happened with Morbidelli is a normal race incident. If you ride a MotoGP you know what to expect in the first corner, you can try to guess how the others are going to move and maybe make some overtakes, but what happened to Morbidelli is easy to happen. We all brake really hard because of the device start. You brake behind each other and whoever is behind has to brake even harder, that's what happened to Morbidelli. As for the contact between Acosta and Binder instead, one went wide while the other insisted, a normal race incident."
There was also a lot of talk today about the usual problem of riders waiting in the slipstream in qualifying. Do we need rules about this?
"If some riders followed me I would be lucky, it would mean that I am the fastest. Racing has always been, is, and always will be like this, it's part of the show, until they change the whole system, such as in superpole. But we have seen it in the past, superpole is boring, I have nothing against it, but today in Q2 everyone was waiting for the fastest."
Bagnaia was tough on the issue today, he called it a ridiculous show. A principle of psychological warfare with your future teammate?
"He didn't mention my name, so I don't feel called into question."
Do you think teams should have ways to be able to handle this situation better? Maybe by putting penalties if you are too slow on a section of the track.
"It can be done, but at that point the strategy would move to the pitlane, as it already happens in Moto3. This is the first GP since the beginning of the season where I'm looking for a slipstream, I'd like not to have to do that like in the past races, but of course rules are rules and I'm not the one to decide."
In the pitlane, however, the speeds would be different.
"It's true, but if you are off the line it's not dangerous, disturbing another rider is. For example, today Bezzecchi came out at Turn 3 passing between me and Di Giannantonio. If you don't disturb others it's not a problem."
