Gresini’s Marc Marquez says that his bad start at last weekend’s Australian MotoGP race was caused by “a mistake I couldn’t avoid”.
Marquez dropped to 13th in the first corner after his tear-off got stuck under the rear wheel of his Gresini machine, causing the tyre to spin up.
The Spaniard recovered to sixth by the end of the first lap and then had the pace to take victory ahead of championship leader Jorge Martin.
Marquez explained the reason for the start mistake was due to a mosquito getting stuck on his visor.
“You know, it was a mistake but a mistake I couldn’t avoid,” Marquez told TNT Sports’ Steve Day.
“It’s not a rule, but normally we speak on safety sometimes with the riders to not take the tear off on the grid because it can get in your wheel, but also in the wheel of others or their box or something like this.
“But this time I didn’t have the chance, because when I was putting the front device, it was a big [insect] with that kind of film on the visor.
“I say ‘I cannot see well and I will arrive on the first corner and I will not have a good vision’, then I decide to remove it.
“I thought with the wind it would go out but it goes on my rear tyre and that makes everything more difficult but also more interesting for the fans.”
Marc Marquez: ‘I knew that Martin has the MotoGP championship to lose’
Marquez continued to say that he knew he could still win the Australian Grand Prix after Martin made an error on Lap 12.
The Gresini rider explained that he had nothing to lose in his pursuit of victory, while the Pramac rider had everything to lose in this year’s title fight.
“When I was catching Bagnaia, I saw that Jorge was still half a second, one second in front.
“Then I said ‘Ok I try to overtake Pecco’ but he was braking super late and then I tried to find the way to overtake in a good way.
“But then when we catch Jorge I say ‘Ok now we have a good possibility’.
“It’s true that I had some question marks because in the first laps we used the rear tyre to catch them, but on the last laps I say ok now I will try.
“I knew that Jorge has something to lose more than me, so on that occasion, in that scenario I had a small advantage.
“I wanted to go for the race, he goes for the championship and for him it was already a good result. So yeah, that gives me confidence.”
