Marc Marquez: “I’d still have finished fourth…”
“If we started on the front row, we would have still finished fourth”
“We destroyed our weekend with the qualifying crash” - those were the words of Marc Marquez two weeks ago, after riding from ninth to fifth place in the San Marino Sprint race.
Marquez then capitalised on a Sunday rain shower to snatch a surprise second Ducati MotoGP victory.
Returning to Misano for this weekend’s Emilia Romagna round, history repeated itself when Marquez again crashed in qualifying and was left to start from the third row, in seventh.
“I don’t feel fully comfortable on [new] tyres and we need to try to keep improving to get closer to Pecco and Martin,” Marquez said.
The Spaniard took fourth place in the afternoon Sprint. But this time, Marquez’s starting position hadn’t been the issue.
A swift getaway and pass on Brad Binder saw Marquez reach fourth by the end of lap 1 of 13.
But despite going on to set a race time fast enough to win the previous San Marino Sprint, Marquez wasn’t quick enough to trouble the trio of GP24s ahead.
Marquez eventually dropped 5.386s behind race winner Francesco Bagnaia and was forced to fend off the KTM of Pedro Acosta.
“Had we started on the front row today, we would have still finished fourth,” confessed Marquez.
“The top three guys have something more, as you saw today. I was fourth on the first lap, but they were faster than us.”
Most riders are expected to again switch from the soft to medium rear tyre for Sunday’s full-length grand prix, but Marquez doesn’t expect a shake-up in the order.
“I think [fourth] will be our goal for tomorrow as well,” he said.
Brother and team-mate Alex Marquez was the only rider to use the medium rear in the Sprint, after being left 21st on the grid due to a crash.
“Our confidence cannot be as high with these crashes, but it was important to do well in the sprint race and gather some data ahead of tomorrow,” he said after taking the flag in 14th.
“We started last and we recovered many positions while racing with the medium rear tyre in order to have better reference for the race
“I’m still not sure what my choice will be for tomorrow, but we surely now have more data to have a clearer comparison between soft and medium options.”
Combined Emilia Romagna/San Marino Sprint race times (13 laps):
1 Francesco BAGNAIA 19'50.237 Emilia Romagna
2 Jorge MARTIN 19'50.522 Emilia Romagna
3 Enea BASTIANINI 19'51.556 Emilia Romagna
4 Marc MARQUEZ 19'55.623 Emilia Romagna
5 Jorge MARTIN 19'56.502 San Marino
6 Pedro ACOSTA 19'56.817 Emilia Romagna
7 Francesco BAGNAIA 19'57.997 San Marino
8 Franco MORBIDELLI 19'58.334 San Marino
9 Brad BINDER 19'58.38 Emilia Romagna
10 Enea BASTIANINI 19'58.543 San Marino
11 Fabio QUARTARARO 19'58.642 Emilia Romagna
12 Marco BEZZECCHI 19'59.202 Emilia Romagna
13 Franco MORBIDELLI 19'59.508 Emilia Romagna
14 Maverick VIÑALES 19'59.775 Emilia Romagna
15 Miguel OLIVEIRA 20'1.779 Emilia Romagna
16 Aleix ESPARGARO 20'2.286 Emilia Romagna
17 Marc MARQUEZ 20'2.971 San Marino
18 Pedro ACOSTA 20'3.298 San Marino
19 Brad BINDER 20'6.481 San Marino
20 Alex MARQUEZ 20'6.803 Emilia Romagna
21 Jack MILLER 20'7.228 San Marino
22 Fabio QUARTARARO 20'7.517 San Marino
23 Alex MARQUEZ 20'7.854 San Marino
24 Maverick VIÑALES 20'8.160 San Marino
25 Aleix ESPARGARO 20'8.585 San Marino
26 Jack MILLER 20'9.648 Emilia Romagna
27 Luca MARINI 20'10.338 Emilia Romagna
28 Johann ZARCO 20'10.835 Emilia Romagna
29 Raul FERNANDEZ 20'10.979 Emilia Romagna
30 Fabio DI GIANNANTONIO 20'13.056 Emilia Romagna
31 Takaaki NAKAGAMI 20'15.631 Emilia Romagna
32 Augusto FERNANDEZ 20'15.668 Emilia Romagna
33 Joan MIR 20'17.445 Emilia Romagna
34 Johann ZARCO 20'17.621 San Marino
35 Pol ESPARGARO 20'18.044 San Marino
36 Miguel OLIVEIRA 20'18.497 San Marino
37 Augusto FERNANDEZ 20'19.944 San Marino
38 Raul FERNANDEZ 20'20.782 San Marino
39 Luca MARINI 20'21.249 San Marino
40 Alex RINS 20'21.375 San Marino
41 Takaaki NAKAGAMI 20'21.656 San Marino
*8-second post-race time penalty.
