Marc Marquez: “Thank you” to angry Bagnaia, Miller contact "racing incident"

But when a furious Bagnaia then pulled alongside and began gesturing at the Repsol Honda rider, Marquez said 'thank you' and promptly seized the opportunity to follow the reigning world champion instead.

Marquez had joined the track shortly before Bagnaia appeared over the crest to begin a hot lap. Bagnaia then closed on the Repsol Honda while Marquez was cruising slowly on the outside of turn one.

The Italian was not obviously blocked by the eight-time world champion, but either found Marquez’s presence ahead of him a distraction or believed Marquez was deliberately waiting to snatch a tow.

Marquez maintained he would not have been able to stick with Bagnaia had the Ducati star continued his fast lap since his tyres were still cold.

But when Bagnaia backed off, then accelerated alongside Marquez to make his anger clear, it presented a perfect chance to follow.

Just 11th at the time, Bagnaia had no choice but to get back on the gas and, with Marquez now glued behind him, took pole position and dragged Marquez to second place.

Marquez then appeared to poke fun at Bagnaia with a thumbs-up on the slowdown lap, before being jeered by the fans.

“I did [the tow] and I will do in the future. I think it's one of my strong points,” said Marquez, who had irritated Maverick Vinales by hitching a tow on Friday.

“But this time, I was not looking for Pecco. I was looking for Bezzecchi. But [Bezzecchi] went out from the box too fast, we were a bit slow, and I said ‘OK, I will do the lap alone’.

“[Bagnaia] was on a hot lap and then in turn one, I decided to go wide. Because if he's coming in a hot lap, it's impossible for me to follow him, because you're coming from the box the tyres are new.

“But then when he stopped at my side and started to shake his hands [at me], I was saying ‘thank you’! Because of this, I had the chance to follow him. And it's what I did.”

Marquez: Contact from Miller 'completely a racing incident'

Several hour later Marquez, who admitted to struggling at this track on Friday, briefly battled Bagnaia for the Sprint race lead - as raindrops fell – but was soon under pressure from behind and dropped to seventh, where he would finish, after contact from Jack Miller.

“In the race, we came back to our natural position,” said Marquez, who had targeted finishing between fifth and tenth.

“What happened with Miller for me was completely a racing incident because the track condition was very much on the limit, some raindrops and when he braked, he believed he would stay on the line, but he just went wide.

“We had contact, but this is MotoGP and this time happened to me. For me it was OK. Just unlucky I lose four positions in one go and I was thinking to lose positions lap by lap. But it did not change a lot my race.

“Fighting against other riders is so difficult,” he added. “I'm one of the riders that always tries to push more and to overtake.

“But the problem is that you arrive on the brake point 10 meters behind the others and then you cannot overtake. But the other [bikes] arrive at your side and they take the line and overtake you.

“So for that reason, it's quite difficult to fight [with this bike]. It was difficult to fight in Le Mans and then I crashed because I tried to fight when it was not possible. And today I just aid ‘OK, it's not possible, I’ll stay here and finish the race’.”

Marc's brother Alex joined him on the front row in third but crashed out of the race after contact with Miller's team-mate Brad Binder at turn one. The Soth African received a long lap penalty.

Bagnaia went on to win the race by 0.4s from title rival Bezzecchi.