RiderTua.com – Marc Marquez achieved his first podium (finishing 2nd) in the main race for Ducati at the Jerez GP. In fact, victory was within his grasp with two attempts to overtake defending champion Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati). The two of them were involved in a duel at turn 9 when Marquez attacked the inside of Bagnaia, and on the first try there was contact, aka a brush towards turn 10.
It was clear that Marc Marquez did not want to give Pecco Bagnaia a chance to win again, while Pecco also did not want to back down and instead initiated contact by ‘touching’ Marc Marquez’s side. Both riders had to give in and take action to avoid it, even though Marquez was the one most at risk of falling if he didn’t react like that.
Marc Marquez: I was smart enough to give up at the right time during the duel against Pecco in Jerez
After the race, Marc said that he was one of the people who said, this was a normal racing incident. Because things like that could happen. Today, he was smart enough to give up at the right time. Because if not, Pecco, he, or both of them will fall.
Baby Alien added that when he entered turn 10 and his arm and leg hit Bagnaia’s front wheel, two things could have happened. His rear end slipped or he would fall like yesterday. Marc immediately lifted his bike, closed the gas so as not to experience a highside and he lost position but got 20 points. Sometimes drivers who did not create the situation take responsibility for the situation. “Sometimes the affected rider can avoid it and this time Marc was smart enough to avoid the crash and reacted well to the contact from Pecco,” said the 8-time world champion.
Even though there was a crash between Marquez vs Bagnaia in Portimao which resulted in both of them falling, the 31 year old rider admitted that he was happy to be able to fight against the defending MotoGP champion. “As I said to him in Portimao, it’s nice to be able to fight against the world champion and reference rider from Ducati. Today I was at his level and able to fight him. I have the speed to try to overtake, so it’s nice to learn from him,” added the former Repsol Honda rider while smiling.
Marquez continued that Pecco still had several points that were stronger than him. “But let’s see in the future, whether I can get better and closer to him. In the last 3 years Pecco is used to fighting for victory. This is my first real fight for victory in the last 2 years in dry track conditions,” said the Gresini rider.
“The most important thing for me is the pace this weekend and in the race, even with the 5 laps where I lost time, I had the pace to overtake and I had the pace to catch up. I had the pace to try to overtake. The last two laps “The front tire temperature rose. I experienced the front tire locking several times,” concluded Alex Marquez‘s brother and teammate.
