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Marc Marquez is back to his usual ways. After a cautious start to the season, he was once again the protagonist of crashes and collisions at the weekend in Portugal, such as the decisive one with Bagnaia that effectively put the reigning champion out of the battle and relegated him to 16th place.
"I hit my shoulder, but nothing important ," he told the press, " What will remain of this weekend? The good feelings. We improved in speed. It is true that I crashed three times, but that was due to the few kilometers I had with this bike. In qualifying I activated the lowering device too early, in the warm up my foot slipped off the footrest without me pushing. And the same thing happened on Friday. In the race I didn't have the best feeling with the front, however, I was relaxed. Let's say I started to feel more comfortable in the final part with the worn tyres, but then there was the contact at Turn 5. Did I talk about it with Pecco? Sure, but in the heat it's normal for two riders to see it differently. As I told the stewards, it was a borderline incident, but I put the decision back in their hands, keeping myself neutral. I, however, remain convinced that he was in the wrong. We were fighting for fifth/sixth position with three laps to go and he was suffering with the rear tyre. He turned out to be a bit too optimistic in the recovery and aggressive. Behaving like that is a mistake if you are not fighting for the victory. In the end it was Ducati who got the worst of it and thus gained zero points. What is heartening is that both of us were not hurt."
Asked whether now that he races for the Borgo Panigale m,anufacturer the approach of his opponents has changed toward him, the eight-time world champion said, "No, I don't think so or I don't want to think this. Today Bagnaia told me he was thinking about gaining two more points. I think today was not the right time to behave like that. I haven't talked about it yet with Dall'Igna, or with the guys in the team, only with Tardozzi. The good thing is that they have telemetry, so they can see immediately how it went. I have seen it, but as it is private I cannot reveal what transpired."
Inevitable a remark on Acosta, today at his first podium in the premier class. "I start by saying that it's good to be in his slipstream. He has a rookie style, a bit reckless. He makes the most of the curb and the tyres. He had a great race today. He was very fast. I already predicted it in Qatar that he would fight for the first three positions and for success in several rounds. It is also not out of the question that he could even fight for the World Championship as early as this year. He has been a great talent in the minor categories and he will also be a great talent in the present and future of MotoGP."
Still on the subject of Pedro and the ease with which he adapted to the new controls on the bike, the 31-year-old replied, "When you are young you learn faster. Also if you come from another category you don't have habits to change. It's all new. Personally, in Lusail when I had to do the time attack I made a lot more mistakes than at other stages, precisely because I went on instinct and without thinking as, for example, you do in a race."
Taking stock of his weekend, the Spaniard then declared, "When you start behind and have the whole group in front it takes time to get back up. So I tried to get confident with the tyres and I succeeded. In fact, the times went down. It's too bad what happened because I could have brought home the top 5 I was aiming for. In Texas the rematch? I don't want to think about that. I have a calmer attitude now. I only aim to improve. It's good that we are getting closer to the quickest."
