Malaysian MotoGP race winner Marc Marquez says he spent much of the 20-lap race “fighting against myself, against the bike” in his bid to chase down race leader Valentino Rossi.
Marquez was up to second after five laps having come from seventh on the grid due to a penalty, and looked set to lock horns with Yamaha's Rossi in the closing stages before the Italian crashed at Turn 1 and gave the Spaniard an easy run to his ninth win of the year.
The Honda rider says he did not have the same “feeling” on the bike as enjoyed in practice, revealing he spent much of the race “fighting” himself and his RC213V, and did not have “anything more” to close in on Rossi prior to his crash.
“Before the start of the race, my mentality was to fight for the first position because in the dry conditions I knew I had good pace in FP4 and FP3, and on rain conditions was also good,” he said.
“But I was thinking about he victory, but when I go out the feeling was not the same as the practice, I was struggling more than normal.
“But step-by-step I start to understand the track, and the mentality was that one. For that reason I was fighting against myself, against the bike to be as close to Valentino at the end.”
When asked what his plan was for a potential final-lap skirmish with Rossi, he added: “The plan was to try, you know me.
“The plan was to try in the end. I didn't have anything more, both we were both on the limit. We were lapping in the 2:01s-low, 2:00s-high, was really fast pace and then I saw he start to struggle.
“So the plan was try to arrive in the end, and only four or five laps remained, so it would have been very close.
“But the plan was just arrive there and try to fight, but then we will see because our level was very, very equal.”
Marquez's Sepang win was the first of his MotoGP career to come from starting on the third row, which he says acted as “extra motivation”, while he says there was further incentive to win at a track he has typically struggled at in the past.
“It was a very, very hard race because, first of all, starting from seventh place, that was extra motivation because I've never won starting from the third row in the past.
“So was extra motivation, but was really difficult because the first lap was good but not the best of my career.”
He later added: “Today I feel we did a very great job during the whole weekend, but didn't have the perfect bike for the race.
“So I was just riding by instinct, not by using the head. I was just trying to race, trying to push. Of course, if you are already champion you don't have that [added] pressure.
“So I was pushing on the brake points and I had Valentino and also Johann [Zarco] pushing begin. But the motivation was to win on a circuit we struggled at, so this is important."
