Hurt Marc Marquez admits “I was destroyed, I said 'I cannot ride'"

Marc Marquez admits he was “destroyed” physically prior to winning Sunday’s MotoGP Dutch Grand Prix from the aftereffects of two big crashes on Friday at Assen.

The factory Ducati rider endured a bruising Friday at the Dutch Grand Prix, after injuring the left side of his body in a fast crash early in FP1.

He had a second fast fall in Practice that afternoon. Though suffering no major injuries, Marc Marquez said on Saturday that the crashes did condition his approach to the rest of the weekend.

Despite qualifying fourth, Marquez went on to win both the sprint and the grand prix to extend his championship lead to 68 points after chief title rival Alex Marquez broke his left hand in a crash.

Marc Marquez says he was able to ride around the pain in the races because of adrenaline, but admits he was “destroyed” on Sunday morning prior to the grand prix.

“Adrenaline is the best painkiller that exists,” he told TNT Sport.

“This is always my medicine. [On Sunday] in the morning, I was destroyed.

“In the warm-up, I was destroyed and I said ‘I cannot ride’.

“But then in the race, with adrenaline, it’s the best painkiller.

“Of course now, I will take a rest for two or three days to recover the ribs, the finger, the arm and all of the body because these big crashes are not the same at 20 years old then at 32!

“I cannot imagine with more years!”

Marquez “winning in the difficult moments”

Marquez has scored three successive 37-point weekends, with the last two at Assen and Mugello coming at tracks he has not typically favoured over the years.

Noting that he is winning “in the difficult moments” and making mistakes “in easy moments”, he concedes that at Assen he was not the fastest rider on track.

“I don’t know, it looks like this year we are winning in the difficult moments, in the difficult circuits and we are doing the mistakes in easy moments, like in Austin or Jerez that was a favourite track for me,” he said, referencing his crashes in those races.

“But apart from that, I’m super happy one more time to take the 37 points.

“I’m honest and I believe that today I was not the fastest out there, but I managed the race as I wanted, I managed the race as yesterday - trying to defend my position.

“I’m super, super happy - not 100% because Alex broke one finger and I wish to him a good recover, first of all because he’s my main opponent on the championship and I want to have all opponents on track. And secondly because he’s my brother.”