Marc Marquez’s Ducati “completely damaged” by wrong fire extinguishers
"The [fire extinguishers] they have here are not the correct ones"
Marc Marquez says his Gresini Ducati MotoGP bike was “completely damaged” in the Indonesian Grand Prix as the marshals did not have the correct fire extinguishers.
The eight-time world champion came from 12th on the grid to get involved in the top six battle in the first half of the race.
But on lap 12 while running seventh, Marquez’s GP23 engine blew and he was forced to park up at the side of the circuit with flames pouring out of his bike.
Speaking to the media, including Crash.net, on Sunday afternoon he says the damage to his GP23 was made worse by the fact the marshals didn’t have the correct fire extinguishers to deal with that blaze.
“Of course, there was a big noise on the bike and also the engine stopped,” Marquez said when asked about the failure.
“But when I saw the white smoke, immediately I checked and it was a shame because also the fire extinguisher, the ones they have here are not the correct ones and the bike was completely damaged, everything, the brakes.
“It’s a shame for the team because for a private team it’s a big cost.
“But one of the things is the extinguishers need to be the correct ones, or the latest technological ones, because if not you destroy the bike.”
The DNF leaves Marquez 78 points behind Indonesian GP winner Jorge Martin now in the standings, all but spelling the end of his title hopes.
While Marquez is “sad” for this, he reiterated that all of his targets for 2024 have already been achieved.
“Yeah, for that reason of course today I’m sad,” he said of his title hopes fading on Sunday.
“But it was not… I already said my target was already done. So my target from Misano or Aragon, in the press conference I already said what would be the next target, and it’s trying to find the consistency in the race.
“And it’s what I was doing in these last races. Ok, today we had that mistake. But try to find that consistency.
“And the next step is the qualifying practice and it’s what I will be super concentrated on in the next ones to try to be better and better and try to be on those first two rows in a constant way. This will be my next target.”
Marquez was involved in a hard battle for seventh with VR46 Ducati rider Fabio Di Giannantonio that ended with the latter crashing out.
It proved disruptive in Marquez’s race, who feels he could have gone with Francesco Bagnaia to get into the podium fight.
“We were there in a fight that was the first part of the race and just in that fight you only lose time,” he said.
“But I had the pace to be behind Pecco [Bagnaia] in a good way and I knew that my target was that third position, fourth position, fifth position, and it was under control behind Pecco.
“But then we started in that fight with DiGia, which he was exaggerating a bit, and then he crashed because he was with that soft rear tyre and he was pushing a lot in the beginning.
“But this is racing and in racing it’s like this.
“But apart from that, the most important thing was when he crashed I started with my rhythm again and I started to be faster and faster again. Even the lap that I did the mistake I was doing my best personal lap. Unlucky.”
