Marc Marquez reckons that a late change to a medium rear tyre for the Austrian Grand Prix at the Red Bull Ring cost him the win to Andrea Dovizioso.
The Honda man was overtaken with just a corner remaining as Dovizioso dived down the inside, Marquez unable to undercut and being forced to settle for second.
Neither he nor Honda have yet to win the Austrian race since the event returned to the MotoGP schedule in 2016, Ducati now having won all four events held since then.
Marquez thinks that he could have won the race had he stuck with the soft compound Michelin rear tyre-the rubber Dovizioso used to win- but the rising temperatures shortly before the race led to him to choose the medium that had worked well for him in the hotter conditions on Saturday
“I don’t know,” said Marquez when quizzed about why he chose not to use the softer tyre.
“Now I’m thinking about it I don’t know, of course we lost the race there because for some reason we considered but the temperature started to rise like yesterday and of course it wasn’t as sunny, but the Medium was working very good yesterday but today the soft was better.”
“Andrea had better grip in the end but he was playing with me. When I had something I went and opened a gap, but he went with me so I said OK I’ll try and do something.
“I said that I had 20% chance to win and 80 to lose so I tried until the end and then at the last corner I couldn’t stop the bike well and then Andrea had the drive.”
The reigning five-time MotoGP champion revealed that he was ‘thankful’ after he narrowly avoided crashing in his final corner exchange with Dovizioso after his brake protector got caught on the back of the Ducati.
“I tried to copy his move from two years ago, but unfortunately a part of my bike got stuck on his bike,” explained Marquez.
“My brake protector got stuck on the rear of his bike, and I thought I was going to crash as I was going with him but luckily it broke and I was able to get the bike slowed down well, so I’m thankful not to crash and take the 20 points.”
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