Gresini Ducati rider Marc Marquez made it consecutive MotoGP wins at Aragon and Misano aboard his GP23 Ducati, but his latest triumph came “totally unexpected”.
The eight-time champion believes his success in Misano was due to the mid-race shower, which saw him rise up to the podium places.
Championship leader Jorge Martin then made the call to pit onto the wet weather tyres, a gamble that didn’t work in his favour as the track remained slick conditions.
Marquez and Francesco Bagnaia opted to stay out, with the Spaniard winning the race from ninth on the grid by a distant 3.1s.
Marquez told Autosport: “This one was totally unexpected, especially because starting in ninth place, without those drops it was impossible to fight with the top guys.
“We knew that our second part of the race was super strong and for me, the most important thing.
“One point is to lead the race, but the other point is to open a gap to the world champion and to Pecco who is super-fast here.
“I was able to ride in a very good way, very fast and defend in the first part of that second part of that race. And then attack in the last laps.”
Martin’s risky move to pit on the wet tyres ended his race as the weather eased up in the following laps, but Marquez didn’t think a bike swap was necessary.
“Of course, at one point if there was one more lap raining like this then maybe it’s time to go in.
“But especially when I saw that nobody went in and only one rider [did] you need to stay out and this is what I did.
“I controlled in a good way, but then on the next lap is when I attacked. I gave everything. I saw some riders crashed because it was super wet in turns one and two but we managed it well.”
Marquez’s success now puts him as an outsider into championship contention, with 53 points between himself and Martin, who has a seven-point advantage over Bagnaia.
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