Marc Márquez finished the Mugello GP in 4th position. The Spanish rider spent a large part of the race behind Bastianini until he managed to overtake the Italian rider at turn 1. Shortly after, Bastianini overtook Márquez and secured second place on the last corner of the last lap of the Italian circuit.
With this result, Marc Márquez is in third place in the overall standings of the MotoGP World Championship, with three weeks remaining until the Assen GP.
In the debrief, the Gresini Racing MotoGP rider spoke about the race and the performance of his number 23 compared to number 24.
– We know what our position is at this moment and we know that Pecco was very strong. In fact, he had an incredible weekend. But once again, we were very close to the top bikes. We were fighting for the lead and I was enjoying it, so yes, I am very happy with the weekend overall. It’s true that in the race I was a bit behind Bastianini. Throughout most of the race I tried to overtake him, but it was impossible. In the end, I managed to do it, but I had already used up the rear tire. When I overtook him, the pace was good and I was catching Martin step by step, tenths by tenths. But in the last two laps, Enea still had a new rear tire. He was extremely fast on the last lap and I gave up. I said it was time to finish in fourth and that we would have another race in three weeks. The thing is, we were fighting against the fastest Ducati, which is usually Bastianini’s because it is super aerodynamic. He was also doing very well in the last corner. I was doing well too, but he never made a mistake at that point. And he was braking late. So, all these things and the fact that I was behind him throughout the race, the temperature and pressure increased. And then I tried to catch up and open a gap and try to see what was possible, as you can see the first time I braked with both tires sliding. I said, OK, once is fine, but twice is not.
He also added about what he can test on his bike: “The good thing is that we, Ducati, with all the technical team, were very clear with me before signing with Gresini and that’s why I never complained. I mean, I know what I have. I know I will have this set. And yes, of course, if they want to give something, it is welcome, it is a gift. But we know we have this and we need to do the most with what we have. But, as we see on the track, the performance is not very different. I mean, in all tracks we are very close to Pecco and Martin, who are the most consistent, and this time it was Bastianini, but I think the performance between the two bikes is not very big, so we will continue”.
