Alex Marquez told himself to “give up” in the San Marino MotoGP

Alex Marquez had to tell himself to “give up” on winning the San Marino MotoGP while sitting in third place.

Marquez was around one second behind the leading duo of Marc Marquez and Marco Bezzecchi for the first half of the race, but fell backwards in the closing laps and finished seven seconds off the win.

He said the was losing time to the two in front in the first sector, and that he was taking too many risks to try to stay with them.

“In sector one always I’m losing here,” Alex Marquez told the post-race press conference.

“It’s my historical weakest point here in Misano so it’s something that I need to improve for the future. 

“I tried my best, I just tried to be really close to them. But, more or less, in the middle of the race I started to have some problems on the front of the bike, I nearly crashed one or two times. 

“I said ‘Okay, give up, just try to manage and arrive on the podium’. 

“Super-happy. Surprised to be fast here, to be front row, to score two podiums, so it’s a super-positive weekend for us.”

Marquez’s third place in the Sunday race added to his MotoGP Sprint podium in second behind Bezzecchi.

“I’m super-happy about our weekend, overall,” the Gresini Racing concluded.

“I think we did a really good job. It’s one track that I struggle a little bit more, but I just tried to give my maximum every session, just trying to make a lot of laps and to be there, more on the lines than ever. 

“[On Saturday] we were able to make a really good P2, today another podium. 

“These two guys, Marco [Bezzecchi] and Marc [Marquez], they were faster than me during all the weekend – not just in one session, during all the weekend – they had like one-, two-tenths more. 

“So, when I was behind them, I saw that I had a huge advantage compared to P4 that was Franco [Morbidelli] and Diggia [Fabio Di Giannantonio] coming. 

“I said ‘Okay, you need to manage to the end and score this P3’. 

“So, really important, really happy for the team to be at the home GP on the podium and to put Fausto’s [Gresini] colours on the podium here in Misano.”