Marc Marquez is getting closer and closer to his farewell to Honda, but he still wants to show service with the RC213V. Proof of this was the passage to Q2 this morning and consequent 4th place achieved in the last corner of the Chang circuit.
In a debrief, the 8-time world champion rider was satisfied with his performance and with the fight with Aleix Espargaro:
– Yes, it was a last lap where I didn’t win, only Aleix lost the position, because he was 1 second behind me then he made a mistake in Turn 1, he made another mistake in Turn 3 and then I had the ability to fight with him. He then overtook me with a good maneuver between Turn 6 and Turn 7, but then in the last corner, which is one I like, I was able to overtake him and lift the bike well. I liked 4th place, it’s just the Sprint race, but like I said, now we have to enjoy these good moments with the team.
The #93 of Repsol Honda also stated that he managed to mask the traction problems he has been complaining about, with a set-up more focused on braking points, accepting the idea that in acceleration he will lose to his rivals:
– If someone overtakes me from the last corner to the finish line, we would have a big problem because it’s a very short acceleration, especially if we go to the dirty part, we skid more. What we did was just make a bike for the braking points. In acceleration we will lose anyway, we can do the set-up in another way, but we are always losing because it seems that it is difficult to get traction, but yes, we did it in a way that it was more stable at the braking points and I am braking later today, pushing more at the front. It’s riskier, it’s riskier, and it’s more on the edge. For the Sprint race it is possible, but tomorrow for the long race it will be more difficult.