Marc Márquez was the closest to beating Francesco Bagnaia in the MotoGP Italian GP Sprint race. The Gresini rider finished second, but jeopardized his chances of going further with a less good start from fourth on the grid.
Asked if with two more laps it would be possible to reach the winner, the Spaniard denied: ‘No. The time I started from the second row, I didn’t start as well. So, that’s where I lost a bit of the race. It is true that in any case Pecco has a bit more than us. He has a bit more speed since FP1, it seems like he rides in a very easy way – in fact, he won the last two races here. It’s one of the circuits where he is very strong. But even so, we were quite close‘.
After trying to quickly reach second place, Márquez ended up with worn rear tire and, although he still tried one last attack on Bagnaia, he ended up resigning after making a mistake as he explained:
– To make that recovery I pushed a lot on the rear tire, this time I wasn’t patient – I attacked 100 percent to be in second as soon as possible because I knew Pecco would try to open a gap. In fact, he opened a gap. I tried to recover a bit, step by step, but two laps from the end I made the last attack and made a mistake in turn 10 – where I crashed this morning. So, I gave up. But I am happy with the speed and I am happy to be fighting again with the top Ducati riders.
Tomorrow, the Spaniard will start from third due to the penalty imposed on Bagnaia, but he revealed that he preferred to start from fourth: ‘One of the key points for Pecco today was leading the race from the beginning. So tomorrow we will see if we can make a better start. I only focus on myself. Honestly, I prefer to start from fourth rather than third, because the difference is very small, but the way to brake in the first corner is better in fourth place. But apart from that, let’s see what we can do‘.
Regarding the crash in qualifying, Márquez explained: ‘I was coming 0.2s faster than 1m44.5s. It’s the first qualifying… I always attack, but today I said: “No matter what happens.” Because I knew it was crucial to be in the front group. In fact, I was coming in quite fast, I exited turn 9 faster and braked later for turn 10. The result: a crash‘.
