English
Italiano
In Alex Marquez's balance of the day, under the column with the 'plus' sign is the new Jerez circuit record, in the 'minus' one are the two crashes. What is the final result? "Bittersweet taste," was the response from the Team Gresini rider, more realistic than the king to douse his head in ashes and take full blame for what went wrong. "The best way to say sorry to the team for mistakes is to be fast - he sighed, on his forearms the grazes that came from the last pre-qualifying slide - The main objective was to be into Q2 and we managed that quite well, but I'm not happy about the day, so I have a bittersweet taste. We've done records, first places, everything you want in the morning and afternoon, but we haven't done the job you really have to do on a Friday. I had to try some new setups, tires, and I didn't do that. I'm not happy, although I feel pretty good. Tomorrow I will have twice as much work to do."
You got back up and set a record, though.
"I crashed, but I felt good on the bike and that gives you peace of mind. I have that kind of feeling that allows me to understand why I make mistakes."
Why the two crashes?
"Today I was just too confident with the bike, I wasn't feeling the limit. The bike was too stable and too good, so I was just trying to push it and I ddidn't realise the limit was there. This morning I made a mistake in the first corner and then in turn 5 in the afternoon, we need to control that risk a little bit better because Fridays like this can affect us for the championship."
Was it all your fault?
"I went into the corner 5 k harder, braking twice as hard...you can't do that. I was behind Marc, it was a good benchmark, especially because he can make a difference in four corners, the left-hand ones, and I wanted to see how he could do it. I miscalculated the entry of that corner, though. We come from very fast and wide tracks, here everything is slower and I missed calculating the speed better."
You're not serene.
"I'm angry because it was a mistake to get too confident. I don't know how to explain it, today I wasn't feeling the limit, in any corner. I felt like I could always be faster."
Are you physically okay?
"It wasn't a hard hit, but the gravel hurt. I could hardly feel my hands because of the grazes caused by the stones on my forearms. Just that, otherwise I was fine. I just have to stay calm and learn from my mistakes."
Having five other Ducatis on the track helped in these cases, there is their data.
"On paper we have clear ideas about the tires, but you always have to try them, feel how they go, especially ahead of the GP. The plan was to work today with the medium for Sunday's race and tomorrow morning for the Sprint, we will have to revise our plans. We will try to do everything, because I am fast but there are some small things to sort out in the fast corners."
There will be testing on Monday, do you think this GP will be the last one where you can fight on a level playing field with the factory riders? They will have updates.
"You never know, we saw this winter that nothing was working and they had to step back. It is not easy to improve this bike, it is too good in many aspects. I will have the same one until the end of the championship, I know and we are not focused on what others will try. We know our package well and we can be very competitive."
