Alex Marquez “battled” with Marc Marquez tear-off on Czech MotoGP Sprint start

The Czech MotoGP Sprint was Alex Marquez’s worst of the season so far, finishing down in 17th.

It was a tough race from the start, with Marquez encountering a tear-off from Marc Marquez’s visor in his grid box when he pulled into position after the warm-up lap.

“It’s unclear to me what happened at the start,” said Alex Marquez after the MotoGP Sprint at Brno.

“I ‘battled’ with a tear-off, and it was Marc’s [Marquez].

“I pushed it away, but the rear still span.”

Watching the race back, you can see clearly what Marquez is talking about.

From the TV feed, you can see Marc Marquez pull a tear-off as he rolls up to his second-place grid box. When the camera changes to the head-on shot of the grid, you can see he was over the box Alex Marquez starts from when he pulled the tear-off.

Looking from Alex Marquez’s on-board, the front-facing camera shows clearly a tear-off in the Gresini Racing rider’s grid slot as he pulls into it. As he gets closer, you can make out the ‘93’ graphic on the tab of the tear-off.

Watching from the helicopter camera, it’s possible to see Marquez reach down, pick up the tear-off, and throw it away – it’s clear to see that the tear-off is not in his grid box when he launches.

Speaking to MotoGP.com, Marquez suggested his poor start could also have been due to his rear tyre.

“I know that I had a fight with a tear-off on the grid,” he said.

“I took it out. I don’t know if it was that, or if I just spin. It’s something that I need to check.

“Also, the feeling was no super-fantastic. So, I don’t know if I spin for the tyre or I spin for the tear-off, but, later on, with the rear of the bike I didn’t have a great feeling – a lot of vibration, a lot of problems.

“So, we need to check exactly what happened on that, and luckily we have the information from this Sprint race to improve for tomorrow.”

After the start line difficulties, things continued to be complicated for Marquez in the opening stages as he ran into his teammate, Fermin Aldeguer, at turn three. It was at that point that Marquez settled for data-gathering on Saturday afternoon.

“I had a coming together with Fermin [Aldeguer] and that’s when I decided to take it steady in this Sprint, because it was a lost battle,” he said.

“We got some valuable data ahead of tomorrow and we’re not too far behind on the grid, so we’ll work hard in order to be competitive.”