RiderTua.com – Marc Marquez could have celebrated his first victory with the Gresini Ducati team if he had not crashed moments after leading the main race at COTA. But of course it will be a tough task to stem the attacks of Maverick Vinales (Aprilia). Whatever happens, Marquez, who is a 7-time winner in Austin (while still at Repsol Honda) insists that he is racing with a focus on the podium not victory, a mentality that is reflected in his choice of tires.
The top two, Vinales and rookie Pedro Acosta (GasGas) both chose medium rear tires. Marquez explained that he faced a difficult choice before the race, namely risking the medium tires in search of victory or pursuing a safer podium by choosing the same soft option as the other leading Ducati riders.
Marc Marquez : I Think the Podium is Not a Victory in Texas
Actually, Marc Marquez thinks more about the podium, not winning. Because he thought about choosing medium tires, but then he saw that there were only 2 racers with medium tires and all Ducatis chose soft tires. “So I said ‘use the soft’ because I have more speed than them (the other Ducati riders). Therefore, the choice of tires shows that I am thinking about the podium, not victory,” stressed Marc Marquez
But Marquez’s hopes of a podium were suddenly dashed when Baby Alien experienced front brake problems, shortly after taking the lead from Pedro Acosta on lap 11 of 20. “I am a rider that if I crash (due to my own fault), I will say ‘Sorry I crashed’. But today we had a lot of problems,” explained Marc, who also experienced aero damage after contact at the start of the race with Jack Miller (KTM).
The 6-time MotoGP world champion continued that from the data seen, when he fell, he pulled the brakes but there was no pressure on the brakes. Then he pulled it a second time and it was a little better, but the speed was still too high. And that’s when the front slipped.
“But not only that. Apart from that, at Turn 12 I braked two or three times every lap. So we need to understand it to improve ourselves in the future. The most important thing is that I feel competitive and this gives me a good mentality,” added the older brother at the same time. Alex Marquez‘s teammate.
For Marc, problems at Ducati are normal problems in a new project. “The good thing is that when we have a problem, we need to create an answer. I think this team is quite fast and we will have a solution in the future,” concluded Marc Marquez.
