One percent counts, something that Pecco Bagnaia knows well and continues to repeat in TV advertising, because in the end that's the difference between champions. A very small margin, sometimes infinitesimal, but it matters in the end.
It applies in all sports this 1 percent: for the tennis player it is resilience and the ability to maintain concentration in exchanges, in recoveries when you are down; for the 100 metre runner it is reaction time, frequency and explosiveness; for the marathon runner it is extreme endurance to fatigue when muscles have turned to stone and lungs are screaming. What is it that gives you that 1 percent? Training, talent, which amounts to say DNA, or is it something deeper and more coachable?
We lean toward the latter peculiarity: that endowment that makes the deep freediver hold his breath when after a plunge into the blue the surface is still a shining distant mirror and the diaphragm beats against the lungs from hunger for air.
Yet you must hold on. There is no alternative if one wants to live. And that is what, apparently, makes Marc Marquez unbeatable at the moment. For that matter, one should not be surprised: Marc has returned to the surface of his world after a dive deeper than the world record of 135 meters set by Alexey Molchanov, in the Bahamas.
He resurfaced, and that breath of oxygen gave him such energy that the impossible for him became an everyday occurrence. Like today where not even a bad start from the pole slowed him down. On the contrary, he put his lucidity on display.
"I had to decide in a split second what to do, whether to start without launch control or lose some time reactivating it. I could have started just the same, but I would have had less speed at the end of the straight, and here the first corner is far away," Marc said. Then he continued - I made a series of mistakes with the launch control, but today the pace was there. Normally at Mugello I struggle. Today it went well. Tomorrow we will see, also the tyre will be different and usually Pecco struggles more in the Sprint. I got the confidence in FP2: with Rigamonti each time we get to know each other better and we are able to improve the bike. I was worried about Alex though, but when he was in front I realized I could do my race."
"When everyone thinks it's not your track and you still destroy your opponents, you make a good hit," Niccolò Bulega remarked bluntly, acknowledging the talent of a (future) opponent whose determination, if you remember, he was able to experience during the Race of Champion at WDW in Misano.
What is surprising this year is not so much this minimal difference - minimal, but one that is digging a furrow in this world championship between Marc Marquez and the others - as his responsiveness and inexhaustible thirst for victories.
So when Marquez says, "it wasn't the main goal to win today, but it was good to fight," you have to believe him up to a point. The record-chasing deep diver 'must' reach the surface. The outcome of the dive is uncertain each time, life, one's own safety, is in danger, but no alternative to the ocean surface is contemplated.
The world championship is long and far from over, both his brother, Alex, and Pecco still have their chances but the atomic ant must be credited with being unquestionably the strongest. And of having downgraded not only his direct opponents, but the entire MotoGP field.
And for those who complain about the absence of a real fight, of a worthy opponent, which according to some cannot be his brother Alex, who does not seem to be competing with him, they should be reminded that no one knows Marc better than Alex. And give him credit for what he is doing.
Why doesn't he make a fierce braking move on him, why doesn't he do a bit of fairing bashing? Be my guest: do you think it would help? Alex's comment is calm.
"I tried from the beginning to resist Marc. I had a little bit of trouble with the rear and kept the front tire pressure under control. But it was a good three-way fight: I tried but I am happy with the Sprint, and tomorrow I will see if I can do better."
There is no disappointment in his words. On the contrary, and it's natural, we find it in those of Bagnaia.
"I am very disappointed," he confessed, "I would have liked to fight for the victory in front of this extraordinary public, but I will keep working even if I struggle this year. I was struggling as usual, I am repetitive, I know. In the time attack I was able to improve, but on the race lap I am going three tenths slower. I see others doing things that I can't do. To try to stay on the podium I gave more than the bike allowed me, risking a lot. I wanted the podium though, that was the minimum goal. Tomorrow? With the medium tire it could be even worse, but today with the soft I had no problem, it could, perhaps, last the entire Grand Prix. Last year the sprint and race paces were similar. I have no stability on the entry, on the fast sections. We are trying everything. A podium is always a podium and we have to honor it, but I was hoping for more. I'm not, as Bulega says 90%: maybe I'm 80, not even that. At Correntaio and Bucine I was making a difference, but now I'm not anymore and I don't understand why."
The secret to seeing the light again is to emerge from deep darkness.