Marc Marquez reveals cause of COTA lead crash
When Marc Marquez took the lead for the first time as a Gresini Ducati rider at the midway stage of Sunday’s Americas MotoGP, his eighth COTA victory and first MotoGP win since 2021 looked within reach.
But just moments later the eight-time world champion was dumped on the ground after suddenly losing the front at Turn 11.
“We need to take the positives. We were fighting in that top group, we were trying to lead the race. But unfortunately, the feeling today was not the best,” Marquez said before revealing a front brake issue had forced him to pump the lever multiple times going into corners and eventually caught him out.
“I was struggling a lot with the front brakes. For that reason, I said ‘OK, try to lead the race and let's see if it improves’. But when I arrived at Turn 11, I again had that bad feeling and needed to brake 3-4 times.
“That’s why I increased the speed and lost the front. But apart from that, the feeling during all the weekend was good. We keep improving, In the warm up we did a change that also was helping me, so I’m happy.”
Marquez had been a key player in a ten-lap brawl until that point, losing a sidepod during early contact with Jack Miller, then being lucky to stay upright when a failed initial lunge for the lead resulted in contact with Jorge Martin.
Whether Marquez would have been able to contain a charging Maverick Vinales, who fought from eleventh to victory, if he hadn’t crashed is impossible to say. But the 31-year-old acknowledged ‘the speed was there’ after ‘recovering twice’.
“Unfortunately at the first corner, I went wide [due to contact between other riders] and many riders overtook me. Then I recovered like two times,” Marquez said.
“I recovered one time, but then I had to slow down a lot to not hit Martin. And then Bagnaia overtook me again. Then I came back again.
"So the pace was there, the level was there and the speed was there. This is the most important.
“Now we go to Jerez, we will keep improving and let's see what we can do there. Step by step we are closer to the top guys.”
Marquez, runner-up to Maverick Vinales in the Saturday Sprint, was again the dominant GP23 rider up until his accident.
The #93 has now slipped to eighth in the world championship, 44 points from Jorge Martin, who finished in fourth place on Sunday.
