Marc Márquez’s sprint lasted just one lap and one corner: a skid at Turn 2 ended his attempt to recover from seventh on the grid and he was unable to get back on track. The race was almost immediately over for the Gresini rider, who has not had his best weekend so far. In fact, he slipped on his last attempt in qualifying, wasting a good lap and being forced to start from the third row.
The eight-time world champion admits his guilt at the end of the Assen Sprint and admits that the fall was the result of a driving error. The comeback attempt this time failed, despite the fact that Marc did everything possible to stay in the group at the foot of the podium, desperately looking for a few more positions: “It was a human error, a driving error, which I should have avoided. But sometimes it happens and the only thing you can do is learn from your mistakes. Already on the first lap I ran the risk of falling, I noticed the hole and thought I shouldn’t touch it again.”
“But in the second round, in the middle of the group, I lost my reference. There I arrived with more speed, the bike jumped and I lost the front. It is one of those mistakes that must be avoided and from which we can only learn,” Márquez reveals. “It was my mistake because after hitting the bump on the first lap, I knew I shouldn’t go over it again.”
Marc Marquez, Gresini Racing
Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
However, Marquez is realistic and admits that even without the crash he would not have been able to compete for the podium. Pecco Bagnaia and Jorge Martin had made too big a difference, but even third place was out of his reach: “How much could I have done without the crash? Fourth or fifth. It depends on Bastianini, whether he would have caught me or not.”
“More than anger for having lost points, it is anger for having made a mistake. I don’t like it, even more so if it’s 100% my mistake. There are mistakes that happen because you push too hard, but this one was totally avoidable. This year all the planets must align to fight for the world championship, there are two superior drivers who go faster,” explains the eight-time world champion, who increasingly finds himself out of the fight for the world championship.
But the weekend is not over yet and there is still Sunday’s race to go. The main objective is to regain confidence after today’s two crashes, and then think about the result, with the aim of finishing in the top five: “The positive and optimistic objective is to be in the top five, especially coming from two crashes. Tomorrow I have to regain some confidence in the warm-up, but we will try to make a good start. However, in the race there are three riders who can set the pace.”
Márquez then comments on the traffic in qualifying, where on the last fastest lap no one tried to pull the large group of drivers. In the excitement, Marc slipped in an attempt to overtake Aleix Espargaró: “As is normal on such a fast track, there was a small group waiting to see who would shoot. I would not have shot because I was ahead in the classification, just like Martín. So someone who necessarily had to make the return to improve would have thrown out. I saw that Aleix had made a mistake in turn 3, I tried to overtake him, but I was too optimistic. “That is a very critical corner, there is a bump in the middle and there have been a lot of crashes in that corner this weekend.”
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