Marc Marquez explains crucial cause of "mistake" in Thailand

Marc Marquez’s MotoGP Thai Grand Prix was a case of what could have been, having shown strong speed in the first half of the race before crashing out of second place.

Marquez was battling throughout the opening laps of the race with Francesco Bagnaia, and tried to pass him twice at turn 12, before ultimately crashing out on lap 14 at turn eight.

For Marquez, there was little doubt about his potential to win, but he felt that he should have been more willing to bide his time, rather than trying to rush an overtake on eventual winner Bagnaia.

“We were the fastest today,” Marquez said, “but now, two-or-three hours after the race, maybe we weren’t patient enough in that moment of the race.

“It’s true that it was super-tricky because I wasn’t able to overtake in a clear way [Francesco] Bagnaia.

“I was always planning a very clear overtake, because I had the speed and I said ‘We will have more chances’.

“Always, I was trying to push, attack; then, when it was not possible, to cool down the front tyre, [then] attack again.

“I was doing always a bit the ‘elastic’ during the race, and on that second attack I saw that I was much faster.

“I tried to not give up and I tried to follow him, and just one-and-a-half degrees more in that corner [turn eight] and I lose the front and I couldn’t save — was very close.

“We are humans, we do mistakes, and today it was my turn.”

Marquez said his only chance to pass Bagnaia was in turn 12, the final corner. The Buriram circuit has a number of hard braking zones — especially in the first half of the lap at turns three and four — but turn 12 was the only one of them where Marquez could be close enough to attack; because, where turns three and four come after long straights, turn 12 comes after a series of slow corners.

Bagnaia’s corner exit traction from turns 12 and one meant that passing in turn three and was impossible for Marquez, and Bagnaia had better traction exiting three making turn four a similarly out-of-reach pass.

“[In] all the other brake points I arrived too late, too far,” Marquez said.

“On that turn 12, we were coming back from slow corners, and that is where I had better feeling and I was catching him a lot, and it was the first real hard brake point [after the the slow corners].

“On that lap [14], I was thinking already about the last corner to attack well, but we didn’t arrive.

“I was planning always to understand the way to overtake.

“Of course, like yesterday, in that sector one and sector two I was losing a lot, but then in sectors three and four I was faster than him.

“So, a bit like yesterday, but today [...] it was more difficult to overtake.”

GP23 v GP24 difference

Marquez explained that, while the Ducati Desmosedici GP24 is a step forward compared to the GP23 that he is riding this year in some areas, the bike was not holding him back from winning in Thailand.

“The GP24 in some areas is a strong evolution,” Marquez said, “but I don’t ride the [GP24] and, for sure, my GP23 bike today was ready to win, I felt good.

“It’s true that, as we know, the more time we are [using] the rear [ride height] device in a circuit, the more different it is [between the GP23 and GP24], because they had a little upgrade there.

“But this is good, because next year I will have it.”

Finally, Marquez was able to be upbeat about his race because of the pace he had after his crash, despite having lost his rear brake in the incident.

“In fact, I was riding super-good again, without the rear brake,” he said.

“So that means that I had even more. You see, after the break, already the next lap in the first sector it was my fastest first sector of the race. So, it’s like this.

“Sometimes, we won without being the fastest one, but today we were the fastest one but we did a mistake. These things happen.”