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Marc Marquez came to the interviews with his right wrist all bandaged up. In the impact with Miguel Oliveira and Jorge Martìn it was in fact the Spaniard from Honda who came off the worst and Marc himself made absolutely no secret of his responsibility for what happened in front of the cameras.
A lockup of the front tyre in braking reportedly triggered off the series of events that then led to the accident, which could have caused Marc a fracture to the metacarpal of his right hand and for which in any case he will have to serve two long lap penalties in Argentina. If he were to race, or at the very latest in Austin. Marc appeared to be decidedly heartbroken by what happened.
“The most important is that Miguel is okay – said Marquez – because I did a big mistake on Turn 3, in the first part, and this created everything. As for me, we will see how it goes, but the important thing is that he's fine, not what I did to myself".
Marc was fully aware that he had made a mistake.
"Today I made a mistake and when I do I admit it. For this, I received the double long lap penalty for Argentina as required by the regulations. Obviously, it was not my intention. I did not even want to pass Martìn, because he was not that close. I braked and had a massive lock with the front tyre. That meant that I released the brakes. My intention was to go to the left side, but the bike stayed on a lean and I couldn’t avoid going to the right side. I was able to avoid Martin but couldn’t avoid Miguel. I was very worried for him because the contact was big. I already said it personally - but I want to say sorry to him, to his team, to the Portuguese fans. I have been penalised for that mistake with a double long lap penalty, that I completely agree with.”
Too many risks to keep up with an inadequate Honda...
"The problem is that with this bike I am forced to make up everything in braking and doing so means taking risks. If you don't want to stay in front, you can do tenth, eleventh because this is our level. But if you want to stay in front you have to push in braking because on the straight, going into and out of corners we lose too much. That's why I risk so much in that phase. Obviously, I don't want to crash, but taking these risks led me to turn 4, with no intention of wanting to pass, to have that lock on the front and when that happens with this MotoGP, you pick up speed right away. You just need to let go of the brake for a moment and the speed increases a lot. But it's the same for everyone, so we need to understand how to go fast in a different way."
What happened was clearly not what Marc would have wanted.
“Of course, you never want to have these kinds of incidents, but it’s true that right now when we have a small mistake on the brakes - a lock or some movement - it is so easy to increase the speed, especially in the tight corners. Recently we saw this at Phillip Island for example. With Fabio Quartararo, but he was able to avoid. We are braking so late. But even like this I was able to control during all weekend and you never want to crash and I don’t want to finish a race like this. But maybe that hard option in the front was not ready or something. I was not even close and not thinking about overtaking. So you can explain many things but in the end, it’s my mistake which caused the crash of another rider.”
A problem that maybe had happened in the tests, but when Marc was alone on the track.
“As you saw yesterday, the only way to do the lap time is on the brakes. And we are braking so late. If you don’t brake late like this, you finish 10th, 11th, 12th. But I wasn’t attacking. Because we were not riding very fast. I knew the race was long. I chose the medium rear tyre for the long distance. I was thinking to use the soft rear and attack in the beginning but I thought ‘okay I will keep calm’. And I was calm. On the first lap in that turn, I went wide alone because also I had a small lock. It maybe also happened in the test but I was riding alone. This time unlucky for me, and especially Miguel, when I released the brakes the bike was going inside.”
The double long lap penalty is the right one in Marquez's opinion.
“In the rules briefing on Thursday, it was that penalty. If you overtake and create a dangerous situation and you create a crash of another rider it’s a double long lap, for the first time. Then second time I think it’s a pit lane start. And third time is a ride through. So I’ve been penalised and I deserve it.”
But doubts surround whether or not he will be in Argentina.
"I don't know if I'll be in Argentina. We're still deciding when to have the medical, whether today or tomorrow morning, we're still deciding. But as I said, the most important thing for me is that Miguel is fine."
