Marc Márquez achieved the improbable, securing second place in the MotoGP French Grand Prix after starting from 13th – the same comeback he made in the Sprint race at Le Mans, once again showing that he maintains his skills. He finished the main race just behind Jorge Martín (Prima Pramac/Ducati), after overtaking Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati) on the last lap.
The Gresini rider acknowledged that such recoveries are rarely possible, taking away from this round the learning experience after a less than stellar start from which he had to recover:
– Of course that 13th place penalized a lot our race, but we were able to save – this time, next time will be more difficult because you can save one or two times per year. We learned a lot this weekend, because we did a change on Friday, we chose one direction that wasn’t good. And then we came back, but it was too late on Saturday. Then, setting-up the electronics and everything step by step. In the Sprint race was the first time that I felt well with the bike. These two guys [Martín and Bagnaia] were fast from the beginning and they have very clever ideas about what they want and what they need.
In Márquez’s opinion, if he had started in the top three, what could have changed would be race management: ‘Basically starting on the front row maybe would have helped to manage the race in a different way: we use more the tyre, we use more the physical energy – I was tired in the end. But for me it was more than acceptable. If on Thursday here in the press conference you said to me that I would finish second, I would say it was fine’.