Tyre choice hints at Marc Marquez plans in Texas
Marc Marquez: 'I was thinking about choosing the medium, but then I saw there were only two riders with the medium and all the Ducatis with the soft.'
It’s impossible to know if Marc Marquez could have held on for a first Gresini Ducati victory had he not crashed moments after taking the lead of Sunday’s COTA MotoGP race.
It certainly would have been a tough task to contain the charging Maverick Vinales.
Either way, Marquez, a seven-time Austin winner for Repsol Honda, insists he went into the race focussing on a podium - not victory - a mentality reflected by his tyre choice.
The top two at the chequered flag, Vinales (Aprilia) and rookie star Pedro Acosta (GASGAS), opted for the medium rear tyre.
Marquez explained that he faced a pre-race choice of risking the medium in search of victory or pursuing a safer podium by picking the same soft option as the other front-running Ducatis.
“My real choice was thinking for the podium, not for the victory,” said Marquez, who insisted before the weekend that he would ‘sign’ for a rostrum and had been runner-up to Vinales with the soft in the Saturday Sprint.
“Because I was thinking a bit about choosing the medium, but then I saw there were only two riders with the medium and all the Ducatis with the soft.
“So I said ‘put the soft’ because I had more speed than them [the other Ducatis]. So for that reason, that choice [shows] I was thinking for the podium, not for the victory.”
But Marquez’s podium hopes ended abruptly when he was caught out by an ongoing front brake problem shortly after taking the lead from Acosta on lap 11 of 20.
“I'm a guy that if I crash [because of my own mistake], I say ‘sorry I crashed’. But today we had a lot of problems,” explained Marquez, who was also riding with aero damage after early race contact with Jack Miller.
“On the data, we saw that when I crashed, I pulled the brake, no pressure on the brakes. And then I pulled the second time and it was a bit better, but still too much speed. And that's when I lost the front.
“But not only then. Also, Turn 12 every lap I was braking two or three times. So we need to understand to improve for the future.
"The most important thing is that I feel competitive and this gives me a good mentality."
The eight-time world champion added: “For me these are normal problems in a new project.
"The good thing is that when we have problems, we need to create the answer. I think the team is quite quick and we will have an answer for the future.”
