Alex Marquez frustrated with ‘difficult’ Catalunya MotoGP after promising start

Alex Marquez continued his run of steady point scoring results in his maiden MotoGP World Championship season even if 13th position in the Catalunya MotoGP wasn’t quite the return he anticipated following a strong beginning to the weekend.

As one of the venues on the calendar he knows intimately, Marquez showed a notable upturn in form during the free practice sessions with substantially more competitive single lap pace than he’s demonstrated thus far this year.

However, the Repsol Honda rider was undone by Sunday’s cooler conditions, which led to an erroneous tyre choice that he says he’ll learn from in future.

Nonetheless, the Spaniard cracked the points in 13th position to maintain his record of having finished every single race so far this season. 

“A difficult race.... We were expecting warmer conditions and we couldn’t use the soft front; we went with the medium. That was my mistake, I pushed the team hard to use the medium but during the race the temperature dropped a lot. 

“In the first laps I lost a lot of time after my good start, then in the middle of the race I felt better but in the end I slowed again. It’s my mistake, sometimes this happens as a rookie and I have been able to learn from this. 

“We also found a few things this weekend, so we are still improving and learning and now we look to Le Mans and also a quick visit to Portimao to learn the layout.”

Marquez sits 16th in the overall standings after eight races.