Marc Marquez on COTA MotoGP crash: ‘I used up championship margin in easy race’

Former MotoGP championship leader Marc Marquez says he used up his points margin “in the worst way” in “an easy race” after crashing out of a win at the Americas Grand Prix.

The factory Ducati rider was aiming to maintain his 100% winning record in 2025 with an eighth grand prix victory at the Circuit of the Americas on Sunday.

Following a chaotic delayed start to the race, Marquez grabbed the holeshot from pole and was leading by over two seconds when he crashed on lap nine of 19.

Marquez ran over the inside kerb at the Turn 4 right-hander and tucked the front of his Ducati. He would rejoin, but bike damage forced him to retire on lap 13.

It gifted the victory to team-mate Pecco Bagnaia, while second place for Alex Marquez means the Gresini rider now leads the championship by a point.

Explaining his crash, Marc Marquez said: “We did the most difficult thing in the easiest moment of the race, when I was controlling the distance, I cut a bit too much that kerb in Turn 5 and I lost the front. It was completely my mistake.

“Sorry to the team, I can say only this.

“Positive for us - because I always try to find the positive - is like we are equal in the championship, one point behind Alex, so we restart the championship.”

Marquez added that the crash was nothing to do with him having “extra confidence” at that stage of the race, while he laments the fact he used up his 19-point advantage in the championship in “an easy race”.

“The kerb I already cut some laps before. So, just I cut it too much - I was too optimistic,” he said.

“I was fully concentrated, I was not with extra confidence, I was just riding, taking care about the hard brake points where you do some mistakes - like at Turn 12.

“But the rest of the track I felt super safe. I cut the kerb too much.

“There was the mistake, I lost 25 points, but we need to keep going in the same way, keep the same speed because I feel fast everywhere, so now tomorrow is a new week.

“We will have a good atmosphere in the family, in training, because we are first and second in the championship.

“We had that margin that we used in the worst way because we used it in an easy race. But at the moment we were there in the championship.”