Marc Marquez admitted that his 101st Grand Prix victory was out of the blue after securing his second win of the 2026 MotoGP season at Brno.
The factory Ducati rider evidently struggled with fitness throughout the weekend, but despite targeting a top-five finish, he secured the maximum 25 points on Sunday.
After championship leader Marco Bezzecchi crashed in the Sprint and was barred from racing on Sunday for striking a marshal, the Spaniard’s results reduced the gap to the Italian to just 40 points, having stood at 102 points only one month ago.
“This one was unexpected, totally unexpected,” he said.
“I mean, today, the target – a very optimistic target – was the podium. But I knew that on the paper I was fourth on the race pace, together with Pecco very close.
“But it looked like [Fabio] Di Giannantonio and [Ai] Ogura were faster than us.”
It took 16 laps for the 33-year-old to lead the race for the first time, before explaining that his speed advantage improved after he overtook team-mate Francesco Bagnaia.
“But we pushed from the beginning, we were third on the first lap, and then especially when I was behind Pecco I saw my pace was good, but I was stuck behind him; I was not able to overtake,” he added.
“When I did it, I was able to be even faster. I used the rear tyre too much in the beginning to overtake Pecco, but even like this I was able to be fast.”
Fearing that Ai Ogura could replicate Sunday’s Moto2 finish where Ivan Ortola snatched victory at the last corner agains David Alonso, Marquez felt under pressure a similar move would have been made at the end of the race.
“I had zero confidence with Ogura behind. I did a small mistake in the exit of Turn 12 and I said, ‘I don’t know where he is. Ok, it doesn’t matter how we attack’. I went in [to Turn 13] a bit fast, but also I opened a lot of gas, because I saw in Moto2 the overtakes in the last chicane, and I said, ‘Ok, this cannot happen to me’.
“And then just I opened more gas and I lost the rear, but enough to cross the line in first position.”
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