Marc Márquez is back on the MotoGP podium, securing third place for Repsol Honda at their home race in the Japanese GP. He finished just behind Jorge Martín (Prima Pramac/Ducati) and Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati) in a race that ended after only 12 of the scheduled 24 laps due to heavy rain.
peaking to the official broadcast, the Spaniard explained that he started calmly and intensified his pace as the rain intensified: ‘I enjoyed. It’s true that in the beginning of the race I was very calm, I just tried to understand the tyres. I knew the race would be very, very long. And in the beginning was very dry. And then if you push there you destroy the tyre. If the rain arrives, then you will lose a lot of time. So I was very calm and when I saw that was water on the track I started to attack and I was increasing the speed step by step’.
In Márquez’s view, the red flag was a good decision in the correct time, despite admitting he wouldn’t mind to restart as the win could be possible: ‘The race direction did a good job because they stopped the race on the correct time. And now there was so much water on the race track and also the light was not there. For me it was ok to restart the race because there was a big chance of victory, but they did a perfect job. Congratulations to the two guys in front of me’.