‘A strange problem’ - Alex Marquez explains bizarre Austria MotoGP crash
Alex Marquez explains what caused his odd crash in Practice at the Austrian Grand Prix
Gresini Ducati’s Alex Marquez says a “strange problem” with his brakes led to his bizarre crash during Practice on Friday at the MotoGP Austrian Grand Prix.
The Spaniard crashed as he was accelerating out of Turn 1 towards the Turn 2 chicane with around 13 minutes remaining in the afternoon session.
The fall occurred as his front wheel touched the ground from a small wheelie, with his Ducati folding from underneath him in an unusual place to crash.
Alex Marquez was unharmed in the incident, while the red flags were brought out briefly to allow his stricken bike to be recovered.
Explaining what happened, Marquez says his front brake locked up at that moment in what he described as “a little bit of a strange problem”.
“I mean, here the brakes are always quite on the limit, and sometimes they lock a little bit,” the Gresini rider detailed.
“And in that moment they were a little bit locked.
“It was the first lap [flying lap], so just that. Here we also have a lot of wheelie, and then when it comes back, everything has to be perfect not to crash.
“And at that moment, the brakes had a little bit of a strange problem.
“But for the rest, everything was quite nice. Not a really good day for us, because we had many problems; the bike was suffering a lot with the rear grip and how to put the grip down on both tyres, front and rear.
“But it’s not like the way the weekend starts is how the weekend finishes. So, we will turn things around.”
The younger Marquez brother also had an incident in FP1, when the bottom left-side aero pod on his bike came loose and sent him into the gravel as he braked for Turn 4.
“I tried a few different modifications, but also I had that issue in FP1 with the fairing,” he added.
“But it was the main issue for us and I was not able to make the back-to-back [comparison]. So, it was like that. And that’s it.”
Marquez made it through Q2 in eighth at the end of Practice, having taken the restart following his crash.
However, he believes KTM’s Pedro Acosta is already “the man to beat”.
“He has like half a second more than everybody on race pace, on everything,” he said.
“So, on paper, he will be the man to beat tomorrow and Sunday, and the guy who will have more possibilities to have 37 points here.
“But, as I said, we need to analyse things and try to be a little bit better tomorrow. Maybe a little increase in temperature will help us. But, quite impressive how the KTM is working here.”
