The Portuguese MotoGP Grand Prix did not end in the best way for Marc Márquez, who, due to a collision with Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati), was unable to translate strong performance into results – as he fought throughout the main race for the top five.
The Gresini Spaniard is satisfied with the improvements made in Portimão, despite the crashes: ‘It was a good weekend. We improved the speed, this is the most important. It’s true that I crashed three times in the practices, but all the three crashes – including in the warm-up – were… we cannot say stupid, but they were crashes that I can avoid with more kilometers’.
Márquez then explained why with more experience on the Ducati he could have avoided the crashes: ‘Why? Because in the qualifying practice I engaged the rear device too early, it’s something that still needs to come in a more automatic way. In the warm-up, the foot slided from the footrest and then I crashed, but without pushing – because it was my second lap and you see that I did 1m41.5s in the first lap. So I was just cruising, but the foot just slided and I crashed. And on Friday the same’.
As for the race, the six-time MotoGP champion commented: ‘I was calm during the race. It’s true that the feeling with the front tyre wasn’t the best one, but no stress; I just waited for my moment. My moment arrived in the last laps, when I was starting to be faster and faster, and I was even improving my lap times because I feel better with the used tyres. But then arrived that turn 5 and I crashed [the incident with Bagnaia]’.