MotoGP, Marquez: last lap? I wasn't thinking about the championship

“In my entire career I have only lost in the last 50 metres twice until now and never in MotoGP.” Marquez would have preferred doing without this episode in his career history, but against Lorenzo and Yamaha there was nothing for it, despite the fact that he tried every which way he could.

“I knew that Jorge would overtake me before the finish. We struggle with acceleration - he explains - I gave it my all and I was missing a couple kilometres per hour. Here, like in Qatar, my opponents were able to overtake me on the straight line.”

We could see that…
“In the last lap I wasn’t thinking about the championship and I rode in pure ‘Marquez style’ (he laughs). Valentino was out. If I had made a mistake I would only have lost points to Lorenzo.”

At the San Donato braking section you even touched …
“I have crashed in that point before. I didn’t want to do it again (he laughs).”

Did you risk much?
“Yes, but we made some great passes. In the last turn I tried to close the door on Jorge, but by doing that I wasn’t able to come out of the corner very fast. He was good in the one-on-one duel. I was really at the limit but before the start I didn’t think I would even be able to follow him.”

Isn’t it frustrating?
“A bit, yes. But after the track closed Nakamoto came straight away to thank me. They know we are struggling and I think that for the tests in Barcelona we’ll have some news.”

In the championship standings you limited the damage…
“Ten points from Jorge are not many and it was also important to capitalise on Valentino’s misfortune. You never know what the future holds.”

Despite everything, there were boos on the podium …
“And they threw tomatos at us too (which, however, did not reach them – editor’s note). I didn’t like that and that’s why I didn’t celebrate much. I think that we gave everyone a great show in the last lap.”

On the other hand, Dani Pedrosa finished just beneath the podium after starting from the 7^th spot on the grid. After struggling throughout the entire weekend, the Spaniard managed to solve part of his problems on Sunday.

“This was my best race of recent times. I lost ground in the first laps with a full tank, but then my pace wasn’t bad and I managed to recover a few positions, also taking advantage of the other rider’s mistakes.”

Were you thinking about the podium?
“I tried to stick close to Iannone even if he was a bit faster than I was. I followed him but it was difficult because he was really fast on the straight line. I learned a lot from the bike in this race. We’ll be able to work toward taking a step forward in the future.”