Marc Marquez: “I’d still have finished fourth…”

“We destroyed our weekend with the qualifying crash” - those were the words of Marc Marquez two weeks ago, after riding from ninth to fifth place in the San Marino Sprint race.

Marquez then capitalised on a Sunday rain shower to snatch a surprise second Ducati MotoGP victory.

Returning to Misano for this weekend’s Emilia Romagna round, history repeated itself when Marquez again crashed in qualifying and was left to start from the third row, in seventh.

“I don’t feel fully comfortable on [new] tyres and we need to try to keep improving to get closer to Pecco and Martin,” Marquez said.

The Spaniard took fourth place in the afternoon Sprint. But this time, Marquez’s starting position hadn’t been the issue.

A swift getaway and pass on Brad Binder saw Marquez reach fourth by the end of lap 1 of 13.

But despite going on to set a race time fast enough to win the previous San Marino Sprint, Marquez wasn’t quick enough to trouble the trio of GP24s ahead.

Marquez eventually dropped 5.386s behind race winner Francesco Bagnaia and was forced to fend off the KTM of Pedro Acosta.

“Had we started on the front row today, we would have still finished fourth,” confessed Marquez.

“The top three guys have something more, as you saw today. I was fourth on the first lap, but they were faster than us.”

Most riders are expected to again switch from the soft to medium rear tyre for Sunday’s full-length grand prix, but Marquez doesn’t expect a shake-up in the order.

“I think [fourth] will be our goal for tomorrow as well,” he said.

Brother and team-mate Alex Marquez was the only rider to use the medium rear in the Sprint, after being left 21st on the grid due to a crash.

“Our confidence cannot be as high with these crashes, but it was important to do well in the sprint race and gather some data ahead of tomorrow,” he said after taking the flag in 14th.

“We started last and we recovered many positions while racing with the medium rear tyre in order to have better reference for the race

“I’m still not sure what my choice will be for tomorrow, but we surely now have more data to have a clearer comparison between soft and medium options.”

Combined Emilia Romagna/San Marino Sprint race times (13 laps):

1    Francesco BAGNAIA    19'50.237    Emilia Romagna
2    Jorge MARTIN    19'50.522    Emilia Romagna
3    Enea BASTIANINI    19'51.556    Emilia Romagna
4    Marc MARQUEZ    19'55.623    Emilia Romagna
5    Jorge MARTIN    19'56.502    San Marino
6    Pedro ACOSTA    19'56.817    Emilia Romagna
7    Francesco BAGNAIA    19'57.997    San Marino
8    Franco MORBIDELLI    19'58.334    San Marino
9    Brad BINDER    19'58.38    Emilia Romagna
10    Enea BASTIANINI    19'58.543    San Marino
11    Fabio QUARTARARO    19'58.642    Emilia Romagna
12    Marco BEZZECCHI    19'59.202    Emilia Romagna
13    Franco MORBIDELLI    19'59.508    Emilia Romagna
14    Maverick VIÑALES    19'59.775    Emilia Romagna
15    Miguel OLIVEIRA    20'1.779    Emilia Romagna
16    Aleix ESPARGARO    20'2.286    Emilia Romagna
17    Marc MARQUEZ    20'2.971    San Marino
18    Pedro ACOSTA    20'3.298    San Marino
19    Brad BINDER    20'6.481    San Marino
20    Alex MARQUEZ    20'6.803    Emilia Romagna
21    Jack MILLER    20'7.228    San Marino
22    Fabio QUARTARARO    20'7.517    San Marino
23    Alex MARQUEZ    20'7.854    San Marino
24    Maverick VIÑALES    20'8.160   San Marino
25    Aleix ESPARGARO    20'8.585    San Marino
26    Jack MILLER    20'9.648    Emilia Romagna
27    Luca MARINI    20'10.338    Emilia Romagna
28    Johann ZARCO    20'10.835    Emilia Romagna
29    Raul FERNANDEZ    20'10.979    Emilia Romagna
30    Fabio DI GIANNANTONIO    20'13.056    Emilia Romagna
31    Takaaki NAKAGAMI    20'15.631    Emilia Romagna
32    Augusto FERNANDEZ    20'15.668    Emilia Romagna
33    Joan MIR    20'17.445    Emilia Romagna
34    Johann ZARCO    20'17.621    San Marino
35    Pol ESPARGARO    20'18.044    San Marino
36    Miguel OLIVEIRA    20'18.497    San Marino
37    Augusto FERNANDEZ    20'19.944    San Marino
38    Raul FERNANDEZ    20'20.782    San Marino
39    Luca MARINI    20'21.249    San Marino
40    Alex RINS    20'21.375    San Marino
41    Takaaki NAKAGAMI    20'21.656    San Marino

*8-second post-race time penalty.