The Austrian Sunday ends with a bitter taste in the mouth for Marc Marquez, author of a race that showed how solid his pace was to fight at least for the podium. However, a start complicated by some problems before the start forced him to make a comeback, executed as he knows how, but which meant that a good opportunity was wasted. Thus, the eight-time world champion was unable to go beyond fourth place.
The Gresini team rider was unable to engage the lowerer when he was on his grid slot and was unable to take advantage of the third position because the start was anything but good. Ended up in traffic at the start, he came into contact with Franco Morbidelli that made him finish 13th. Everything to do again for the Catalan, who from there had to rebuild his race to try to get closer to the leading group.
Not just the lowering device! Marc had several problems at the Red Bull Ring, and long before the device failed to engage, another problem arose: a tire valve broke and the mechanics were forced to change the rim half an hour before the race. This led to the tire cooling down.
“Everything that could happen to us happened,” Marquez explained on Sunday at the Red Bull Ring. “Starting with a technical problem half an hour before the race. When the mechanics were about to put the tire on, they checked the pressure and a valve had broken. They had to go to Michelin quickly, moving the tire from one rim to another and losing temperature in the tire. The main option was to change the tire if they didn’t have time, but they had time and we preferred to go out with the tire even if it wasn’t at the right temperature.”
“On the starting grid they told me to pay attention to the warm-up lap, to get the tyre up to temperature. I was more focused on that than on what we had to do now and I didn’t hook up the starting device properly. My fault, but everything comes as a consequence. It was chaos: warming up the front tyre, putting the front device in… and I didn’t put it in correctly. And I didn’t do it well,” he admitted, acknowledging that he had made a mistake, in addition to the technical problem he had before the start.
The lights going out only increased the problems, with the lowering first and then the contact with Morbidelli: “Luck didn’t help me in the first corner. I went out and said ‘let’s see how many positions we lose’. Morbidelli had to be very fast from behind. It’s normal, it happens to someone and this time it happened to both of us. In the contact, I was going very straight and I braked where Miller, who was on the inside, braked. Suddenly I felt a strong blow on the left side. But it’s not his fault or mine. How many collisions did you see in that first corner? Luckily we both came out of the corner safe and sound. And I got myself into that mess. I should have avoided it”.
From there, it was time to reconstruct the race for the Gresini rider: “When I saw that I was 13th, I had to climb back up patiently, without making mistakes. At least I had fun with some overtaking. Perhaps one of the most difficult moments was with Bezzecchi, I was a few laps behind him. With Jack Miller the front tire got too hot and I wasn’t able to brake where I wanted”.
But, seeing how he recovered and considering that in the final stages he had the same times as Pecco Bagnaia and Jorge Martin, it comes naturally to think that without those problems he could have played it out. Or not? “I don’t dare say if I could have stayed with Bagnaia and Martin. At the end of the race I was faster, yes, but at the beginning I was slower. Maybe they used more tires at the beginning than at the end. I could have gotten on the podium, yes”.
“Today I could have been on the podium, but it wasn’t possible. I’m not satisfied with fourth place, because we failed in the two most important points of the weekend. But, for example, Montmelo was a strange weekend, with bad feelings, and I finished second and second. And this weekend was more important for me, because I was more competitive in all the practice sessions and in all the races,” Marquez admitted.
#MotoGP #Marquez #Broken #valve #race #problems
