“Painful” for Alex Marquez to lose Silverstone MotoGP podium to “unacceptable” error

An “unacceptable” error cost Alex Marquez a podium in the Silverstone MotoGP race, which the Spaniard described as “painful”.

Marquez started seventh, but made progress early on and caught Marco Bezzecchi for fourth around half-distance. He made the move on Bezzecchi at turn 15, but overshot turn one moments later as he lost the rear on entry, falling to fifth before recovering to fourth, although he was never able to reclaim third from Bezzecchi.

The error was tough to take for Marquez, who was sure it cost him a podium.

“Yes,” Alex Marquez said after the Silverstone race when it was noted how disappointed he seemed.

“Because, when you lose a podium for a stupid mistake – because was quite unacceptable from my part, because in that moment I just missed a little bit the brake point – when you have more potential and you see that the podium was realistic, it's painful.”

Marquez thought that he would have been able to finish second without his mistake.

“I think that our chances today were for second position,” the Gresini Racing rider said.

“But that mistake on turn one when I overtook Marco [Bezzecchi], in that moment I was too optimistic and I braked a little bit later, I moved with the front brake and then I lost the rear contact. 

“That cost us the podium today.

“But anyway I think we did a really solid race, we were fast until the end, trying until the end, that was the main thing. 

“I think Marco played really good his cards and he saved something for the last two laps, and he was just faster than us in that point, saving a lot of rear tyre.”

Marquez added that the turn one moment was where he first felt the rear grip starting to fade.

“In that point when I did the mistake in turn one is where I felt the first drop of the rear tyre,” he explained.

“But in that moment I had some movement, but I said ‘Okay, keep calm and keep going because you are faster than Pedro [Acosta]’, and I was able to go a little bit faster.

“When I overtook him, I catch again – when you have many bikes in front of you with these big wings that we have, the bike sometimes is doing strange things, so when you are alone everything is more stable. But in that point you know, I felt the drop and then to the end the last drop as yesterday on the sprint.