Marc Marquez explanation after recovery from Lap 1 mishap at Phillip Island
Gresini rider reflects on Australian GP triumph
Marc Marquez admits “I don’t know what I did” to recover from 13th at Turn 1 after a terrible start to the MotoGP Australian Grand Prix to sixth straight away.
Marquez beat championship leader Jorge Martin in a thrilling duel in the final laps of Sunday’s race at Phillip Island to register his third grand prix victory of the season.
But the Spaniard almost threw away his shot at the win off the line, when a visor tear-off he discarded blew underneath his rear tyre and led to him having massive wheelspin at the start.
He dropped from second on the grid to 13th, but by the end of the opening lap was back up to sixth again before going on to win.
Discussing the first lap, Marquez admits wasn’t sure how far down the order he’d fallen and doesn’t really know how he recovered so well.
“After the start, first of all I tried to not move a lot because I knew that the riders were coming,” he said.
“And I tried to avoid any contact. But when I arrived at the first corner and saw [Luca] Marini here, some Yamahas, a lot of riders in front, I said ‘I don’t know where I am’.
“But then after first corner, second [corner] I was again in that sixth position.
“So, I don’t know what I did - I need to rewatch! But I was pointing on Pecco [Bagnaia] because I knew I was able to arrive to him.
“I was not pointing at Jorge, but when I saw he was managing his rear tyre I said ‘Ok, now I will give everything, I will try to use the rear tyre to catch him and then we will see in the end’. And it’s what we did.”
Marquez first overtook Martin on lap 24 when the Pramac rider ran wide exiting Turn 4, but was immediately passed again on the run to Turn 1 next time around.
The definitive move came on lap 25 of 27 when Marquez threw his GP23 up the inside of Martin at Turn 4 and made the aggressive move stick.
“I was behind Jorge, trying to plan the attack for the last five, four laps,” he explained.
“And then I did it because had a small mistake, and I said ‘Ok, now I will lead the race’.
“And in that moment I thought he would stay behind. But I saw on the straight with the slipstream he was able to overtake me, and then when he overtook me I said ‘Ok, we need to attack well’.
“Then we attacked in that Turn 4 and that last two laps we used the tyre, we pushed a bit more and we did again that 1m28s low, which was a very fast lap.”
