Marc Marquez praised for avoiding what he “doesn’t want to do again”

Marc Marquez’s composed and measured ride at the French MotoGP was lauded for its maturity.

Factory Ducati star Marquez came in second, behind underdog winner Johann Zarco of the LCR Honda squad.

But, knowing teammate Pecco Bagnaia had crashed early, and title rival Alex Marquez had twice fallen too, Marc Marquez opted for a risk-free final few laps behind Zarco.

It meant he now sits 22 points clear at the top of the MotoGP standings, despite entering Le Mans behind his brother.

“It was coming. We are getting there,” TNT Sports’ Sylvain Guintoli analysed about Marquez’s mature ride.

“Marc did a controlled race. He did try, when he was about eight seconds behind Zarco.

“He tried to make the gap shrink. This is how you can apply the pressure, and maybe push the guy in front to make a mistake.

“It wasn’t to be, so he settled.

“It was an intelligent race. Once again, he took points for the championship and did not push his luck.

“He has made his two mistakes in Austin and Jerez, and he doesn’t want to do that again.

“It was important for him to score the big points. It was a championship ride from Marc.”

Marquez had made errors which resulted in crashes out of the Americas MotoGP, and the Spanish MotoGP, which severely hampered his championship challenge and allowed rivals to keep up.

But Bagnaia’s early fall, and a ride to 16th, leaves him 51 points shy of leader Marquez.

“It has been a tough weekend for Pecco. Made worse by Marc finishing second,” Neil Hodgson said.

Fermin Aldeguer hailed after French MotoGP podium

Alex Marquez highsided from third place in the wet conditions in the closing stages.

That allowed teammate Fermin Aldeguer to catch, and overtake, Pedro Acosta to seal a podium finish.

Aldeguer tackled the tricky conditions, in a way that Alex Marquez could not, to complete his best premier class weekend so far.

“It shows how good Aldeguer is,” Guintoli noted.

“Alex has loads of experience but he got caught.

“He’s one of the best riders in the wet, with wet Michelin tyres. He knows them.

“He’s got experience in Le Mans but got caught twice. The second one was massive. Fortunately he is unscathed.

“But it’s not good for the championship.”

Michael Laverty added: “A few riders went for the medium rear wet, and that was Pedro Acosta’s downfall.

“Because, when Aldeguer came through for the podium, you could see he had more grip and turning. It was slick out there.

“Fair play to Aldeguer. To have the bravery to stay a lap longer on the slicks than the Marquez brothers.

“He’d struggled in the warm-up, in terms of feeling, then stood on the podium.”