Marc Marquez says he was happy to settle with third and secure 16 valuable points after struggling with his front tyre over the course of the Spanish Grand Prix, admitting he came close to crashing on a number of occasions.
The current championship leader never looked likely to challenge for the win, admitting race winner Valentino Rossi was on another level, but enjoyed a close battle with Jorge Lorenzo for second before choosing to settle for the final podium spot.
"Honestly, today Valentino was on another level, like I was in Austin, and the most important thing is that today we accepted finishing third in the race," said the Spaniard. "I learned a lot from last year and and I didn’t want to make a mistake.
"I was very focused from the start and I tried to ride strongly and stay with Jorge [Lorenzo], but I could tell that with the higher track temperatures – 11º C higher than yesterday – it was very difficult for me to manage the front tyre well. I almost crashed several times, so in the end I made a difficult decision in front of our fans, as we preferred to secure 16 points that will be very positive at the end of the season, which is very long.
"We must have patience until we take a step further with the bike’s acceleration and find something else that allows us to fight for the win."
Discussion about this post