Marc Marquez “did a mistake in the worst moment” in Austrian MotoGP Sprint

The Austrian MotoGP Sprint appeared to be coming towards Marc Marquez as it crossed over the halfway point but, just as he started to catch the leader, he crashed.

Marquez had started well and was third in the opening stages. He lost some ground in the first few laps to Francesco Bagnaia and Jorge Martin, but after the latter served a penalty for cutting the 2a-2b chicane, the Gresini Ducati rider was promoted to second place.

He had 1.5 seconds ahead of him to Bagnaia, and on lap nine reduced that deficit by 0.3 seconds. Soon after, he crashed at turn three.

“It’s a difficult one to accept, but I’m happy about this Saturday,” Marquez told MotoGP.com.

“The performance was there. I know what was the mistake. I said in the parc ferme [after qualifying] that I’m half-a-step behind the top guys, and in the Sprint I took too much risk.

“I even thought that I was able to catch Pecco [Bagnaia] in the last laps because I felt super-good with the bike.”

After the race, Bagnaia told MotoGP.com that he was managing the gap, and changing engine maps to understand things for Sunday’s race in order to explain his time loss to Marquez.

Marquez, though, said he was just beginning to attack when he crashed.

“I felt good, and I knew that the last laps of the Sprint would be my strong point because with the used tyre I feel better than with the new one,” he said.

“So it’s there where I try to manage the situation, in the beginning. Then, when I put my attack, and in fact I was on a good pace, I did a mistake at turn three.

“I was doing a very solid weekend, but we did a mistake in the worst moment.”

As a result of his mistake, Marquez suggested that he will try to take a different approach in the Grand Prix.

“I saw during all the weekend that they are half-a-step in front of us,” he said. “Today I tried to recover that half-a-step, but I take too much risk. So, tomorrow, the target is to win that third place of the podium and finish the race.”