MotoGP | Marquez: “It was a mistake by Bagnaia, but not just the accident”

Win or not, Marc Marquez is always the great protagonist of MotoGP race weekends. The Portuguese Grand Prix was no exception and, if in the Sprint he made headlines for his podium, in the long race he was the center of attention for a new episode that ended in Race Direction. In fact, two laps from the end, a contact with Pecco Bagnaia put both of them out of the race, without physical consequences, but with a lot to talk about.

Both were summoned to the Race Direction, each explained what had happened with their own point of view and the episode ended in a stalemate. However, in the dynamics of the accident, Marc Marquez has quite clear ideas: “When they called me to Race Direction and asked me what I thought, I replied 'and what do you say'. For me it is an action very close to throwing out of a race. They decided not to penalize him and I told them that I had a neutral point of view, I would respect their decision and I would not push for them to sanction him. But the consequence is zero points for Pecco and me, which is the last thing we wanted.”

“From my point of view, it was a mistake by Bagnaia, but not just the accident. This type of contact can occur in these types of actions. He wanted to go inside without taking into consideration that I was returning. There was no need to go in this aggressive way. He, however, decided yes and the consequence was that two Ducatis finished with zero points. He says he got back into his path, but that he wasn't expecting the contact. Luckily neither of them were hurt. Ducati has telemetry and from there you can see very well what happened. I saw her and understood what happened, but I can't explain it because she is private,” Marquez continues in his explanation of the incident.

In the duel, Marc found a pass on Pecco, who wanted to respond by trying to get back to the front. However, at Turn 5 they touched each other and ended up in the gravel: “It was a mistake that I didn't expect from Pecco. I saw that he was struggling. When Acosta overtook him, he was struggling a lot with the tyres. There were still three laps left, we were fighting for fifth or sixth position, two points more or less. When you suffer so much with the tyres, you know that if they don't overtake you in one corner, they will happen in the next. He wanted to respond to the overtaking in a too optimistic way. It was at the limit of everything and in the end we both ended up in the gravel.”

Speaking about his race, Marquez stated that he approached the weekend with less vehemence and more calm. He is taking his time to get to know the Ducati and to familiarize himself with his new weapon: “I faced the race calmly, today I didn't have a great feeling with the bike and I decided to let the laps pass waiting for my moment. At the end of the race I was feeling better, more comfortable. The times were improving and it's a shame that we finished with a zero, because we were reaching the main objective, which was the top 5. This year I'm very calm, I really respect the times I need. This can happen to me at the next race, clearly. But luckily this time I wasn't inside, but I was the one hit.”