Marc Marquez: “Friday Mir, yesterday Rins, today me - I was lucky”

Of course, Marquez missed three of those rounds due to a hand fracture in Portimao, but - including last year’s Valencia finale – it’s the first time in his career that he’s crashed out of four consecutive MotoGP races.

Marquez’s latest downfall occurred on lap six of Sunday’s Mugello race, when he ran wide at the final corner and then lowsided from his Repsol Honda.

The eight-time world champion knew what he had done wrong, by trying to turn on the dirty part of the track.

“I was trying to control myself during the race. I put the soft tyre, but I didn't attack in the beginning just to keep the tyre and I knew that my position was 6-7th, and I was already better than that,” said Marquez, who had dropped from second on the grid to seventh in the Saturday Sprint race.

“But I had a big shaking - already in the first lap I had a big locking on turn 10 that I nearly crashed and I didn't understand why. Similar to Portimao [when Marquez collided with Miguel Oliveira, injuring them both].

“Then I had another locking on that [final] turn on the brakes. I went wide, and that was when I made my mistake. I didn't lean more than usual, but it was more dirty out of the line and I lost the front.”

Marquez: Honda riders are crashing too much

After a weekend in which two other Honda riders, team-mate Joan Mir [finger damage) and then LCR’s Alex Rins (broken leg) were sidelined by injures, Marquez suggested such incidents are a direct result of needing to take too many risks.

“Friday was Mir. Yesterday was Rins. I wish the best recovery for both of them. Today was me. Lucky for me, I escaped from that crash [unhurt],” Marquez said. “I was trying to control myself a lot here because I know that a crash with these high speeds normally you get injured, like Mir and Rins.

“But we are crashing too much. Honda has riders with a winning mentality and if you put riders with a winning mentality and you don’t have the chance to be [up] there, the problem is that you will crash more and more times because we're pushing more than the others to be on the lap times. And this is what happened.

“But I keep going, I keep pushing and we need to be together and work with the team to change the situation for the future. For these next races, the second part of the season, and especially for the next year.”

Marquez: Sachsenring? I know what I did in the past, I hope I can do it in future

Marquez now heads straight for the Sachsenring, his most successful circuit in grand prix racing but an event he missed due to arm surgery last season.

Marquez has won eleven times at the German Grand Prix, including eight in the MotoGP class, and hasn’t been beaten at the tight and twisty anti-clockwise circuit since 2009 in the 125cc.

“We are coming from a very difficult moment and it will be hard even if it's Sachsenring. We will try our best weekend and on the Saturday we will understand where we are.

“But here and Le Mans was the same, we were closer than we expected, but the problem is that we are taking a lot of risk,” Marquez reiterated.

“The problem is that when we crash another time it’s difficult about the mental side.

“It's difficult but I keep going. I keep pushing and I don't care about the rest… I know what I can do, what I did in the past and I hope that I can do in the future.”

Mugello signalled the one-year anniversary of Marquez’s withdraw from MotoGP action to undergo a fourth round of surgery on his right arm. The #93 had qualified twelfth and finished tenth one year ago.

“What I did [compared to last year] is a massive step on myself. Last year here I was in a similar level as Nakagami [eighth last year, 13th on Sunday] because I was struggling a lot with my physical condition," he said.

“Now I'm ready about my physical condition. And as I said yesterday, in 10 laps [Sprint] you can be so precise, so concentrated and use a lot of your skills and your physical condition to finish the race. Or to do a single lap like in the qualifying practice.

"But to do 23 laps [like that] in the race is impossible.

“The Ducati riders are riding very fast. This increases the level. And I was much faster than last year with a very similar bike. So this is the only thing that makes me a bit more calm.”

Marquez has scored just 15 points so far this season, all from Sprint races.