Honda's Marc Marquez says his decision to run the medium rear wet tyre was his “biggest mistake of the season”, and contributed to his exit from the MotoGP Valencia Grand Prix.
Marquez was the only rider of the 24-strong grid to go with the medium option rear, which looked to be an inspired choice as the rain abated as race time edged nearer.
However, the rain returned to just moments before the warm-up lap, and Marquez had to battle a continuous drop in tyre temperature as the weather worsened, with the Honda rider highsiding out of third at Turn 9 on lap nine of the first start.
Marquez admits this was his “first big mistake” of the season, and concedes he needs to learn from it.
“Maybe was my biggest mistake of the season. Why? Because I choose the medium rear tyre,” he said after the race on Sunday.
“On the grid all the team of Santi [Hernandez, crew chief] and Alberto [Puig, team boss] say to me 'ah, it start to rain, with the soft you are ok'.
“But the problem was in FP3, with the medium I was riding in a very good way with not so much water, and when we go out of the box today there was not so much water.
“And then on the last part of the grid procedure, it stopped raining, so I say 'put in the medium'.
“They put the medium in, but when we start the race it started to rain heavy and then was so difficult because every time the rear temperature was going down and down, and then I crash.
“But fortunately I'm ok, physically, but it's true I need to learn from this mistake because for sure today it was not the correct one.”
Marquez suffered a shoulder contusion on Saturday in a crash in qualifying, and looked to do the same in the race. However, he confirmed his shoulder remained “in place”.
“I mean I had a really big strange movement, but I had a very strong tape on the shoulder and just I was touching a little bit because it was so painful, but then I start to realise everything was in [place], just was from the hit.”
Marquez will have surgery in the winter on his shoulder, and says he will not do “many laps” in this week's test in Valencia and next week at Jerez.
“I say sorry already in the box, but we were planning the test on Tuesday and Wednesday,” he said when asked about the animated conversation he had with his team post-race.
“I'm one of the riders that likes to ride during all of the day, but here in Valencia and Jerez is very important tests, but I need to be precise, not many laps.
“Just, of course, my physical condition right now is not 100 percent, so not many laps. Just try a few things, so we were just planning the test.”
