Marc Marquez says he wanted to dominate the MotoGP Spanish Grand Prix to prove his confidence had not been dented by his Austin race crash.
The Honda rider crashed out of a commanding lead during the Americas Grand Prix last month, ending his unbeaten streak at the Circuit of the Americas.
After seizing the lead off the line at Jerez, Marquez pulled out a gap of over a second on lap 10, and was as far ahead as four seconds at one stage as he eased to a home victory.
Marquez admits he wanted “do the same race like in Argentina and Austin” and dominate to prove to his rival his “confidence was the same”.
“[It] was the strategy [to break away],” confirmed Marquez, who now leads the championship by a point.
“When I saw the sunshine, when I saw the temperature I say 'OK, it's time to do the same race like in Argentina and the same race in Austin', because like this you show to the opponents that – yeah, I did a mistake in Austin, it was a bit hard to understand the mistake there.
“But then you show to the opponents that your confidence is the same. [I'm] happy for these 25 points and happy because we are leading [the standings] again.”
Marquez came under close attention from the Petronas SRT duo of Franco Morbidelli and Fabio Quartararo in the opening laps.
He says he was not surprised to see the customer Yamaha duo so close as he knew the opening 10 laps would be a “group race”, and was confident he would come stronger when the grip started to drop, as this is when he feels “stronger”.
“I knew the first 10 laps will be a group race, but if you are in front just working on your pace, working on your lines, forgetting who is behind, then was the way,” he added.
“It was the way, because with the new tyres everyone is fast. Then, when it [grip] drops a little bit, it's there where I feel stronger, where I feel faster.
“And for that reason also yesterday Yamaha riders were very fast, because with the new tyres, for some reason they are very fast. But when the tyre drops, it's where I start to feel better.”
Marquez suffered a strange fall at pit entry during Sunday morning warm-up when his bike appeared to have suffered another mechanical issue, but was adamant he stopped due to a “misunderstanding” rather than a technical issue.
“It was a misunderstanding, not a mechanical problem, was a misunderstanding inside the box,” he said when asked what happened.
“Unfortunately I was checking [the bike], because there was something strange.
“The foot was buried between the footrest and the gear shift lever, and for that reason I crash because I couldn't move my foot. But was only a misunderstanding, it was not a mechanical issue.”
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