‘Not worth it’ - Marc Marquez settled for “important” third in Brno MotoGP sprint

Marc Marquez says the risk of crashing and getting a penalty stopped him from mounting a last-lap attack on Ai Ogura for second in the MotoGP Czech Grand Prix sprint.

The Ducati rider came from fifth on the grid to third in the early stages of the 10-lap sprint, before closing in on leading duo Pecco Bagnaia and Ai Ogura.

But Marc Marquez ultimately couldn’t advance on third, taking the chequered flag just over half a second from Trackhouse Aprilia’s Ogura.

The reigning champion says he was waiting for Ogura to make an aggressive overtake on the final lap to seize his opportunity, but thought better of overstepping his own limits.

“I mean, the previous one [lap] before the last lap I was very close, just waiting for Ogura to do some crazy move, as always,” he began.

“I mean ‘as always’; in the last circuit he always tried to overtake on the last lap. Not a crazy move, but an aggressive move.

“So I was there close, just waiting for that move, but I saw that Ogura this time was more calm.

“And then I just decided to be more calm, because in the end the sprint race, if you try to overtake...

“No, I mean, imagine that I try to overtake and I lose the front or something, it's like zero points plus a long lap tomorrow.

“So, just to gain three more points or two more points, the risk you take and the penalty you can get tomorrow, I learned that the compromise is not worth it.”

“More important than Balaton sprint victory”

Marquez has been suffering more with the physical condition of his right shoulder at Brno, which made his third-place finish “much more important” than his sprint victory in Hungary.

“Third place here is much more important than the sprint victory in Balaton,” he added.

“Of course, the main race I think will be different, but the most important thing is that the pace was there in the end.

“I was able to catch them, but then I wasn't able to attack because it was very similar and I saw some locking in the front, and I decided to stay calm.

“But today I was close to the top guy, which was Peco riding the same bike, so this is very important.”

Marquez and sprint-winning team-mate Bagnaia went with the soft rear tyre, while most went with the medium.

“In Balaton, my choice was not the correct one, even though I won the race, but it was not the correct one,” he said.

“And here they said the soft, so I chose the soft. So to all Ducatis, they said to us that the soft option would be more performant, so for that reason we chose the soft.

“And in the end it was there, because Ogura was there because he is faster this weekend, not because of the tyre.”

Marquez has been having to conserve his energy through the weekend’s sessions, which has been going well, but “you cannot fight” doing this.

“Yeah, I'm happy how we tried to manage the energy, but in this way you cannot fight or you cannot do a perfect weekend.

“Especially because yesterday I pushed four laps in the FP1 and four laps in the FP2.

“So this morning it's true that if you check the rhythm, I was more just concentrating more on the rhythm.

“But the way to try the things and the way to take the reference is super difficult, but it's the only way I can survive the weekend right now.”