Solid second place for Alex Marquez in the Sprint Race MotoGP in Assen. He missed the starting point to be able to attack Marc, good at closing all the doors in the potentially overtaking points. Maybe he could dare more? Perhaps. He probably considered too risky to try to overcome his brother and did not want to avoid any trouble. He conquered a result that keeps him firmly in second position also in the general classification, where he precedes Pecco Bagnaia of 74 points.
MotoGP Assen, Alex Marquez’s comments
Even if he would have preferred to get on the highest step, the pilot of the BK8 Gresini team is satisfied with his performance and its final result: “I am very happy with the podium – he said to Motosan – Why Before starting the sprint I felt it was a bit difficult. This morning I didn’t have a great pace in the tests. Today there were two possibilities: fighting for victory or struggling to enter the top 5. I did not start very well, and at that moment I had some doubts. Then I attacked well and managed to maintain a not bad pace. I tried to the end, I tried to give all of myself, but it was not enough“.
Having been very close to Marc, why has he never tried overtaking? Here is Alex Marquez’s explanation: “The problem is that I was faster than him in a point of the track, the sector 3. Curve 10, 11, 12 You have to be much faster to be able to overcome. The track here is very narrow, now with wings and all this, especially with the same bike, the differences are really minimal. Motorcycles have the same performance, it’s all the same. So, you have no possibility“.
Too submissive with Marc? The pilot’s response
The two -time world champion stressed that having a Ducati almost identical to that of his brother was not of help: “If you have a Yamaha or a Honda in front, in some places they will be a little better and in other points you. When it comes to the same bike, everything is very similar. And above all, Marc was going very well both during the braking at the 16th, which is a clear point for overtaking, and when braking. So, I didn’t have a go -ahead to overtake“.
There was no lack of criticisms of Alex, accused of being too submissive when he has Marc in front of Marc. However, Marquez Jr doesn’t care about this type of comments: “I don’t give a damn. It could not matter less. At the moment, with my strategy everything I can say is that I am second in the World Cup and I am the only one to have a chance to beat him“. We will see if in the long race there will be more action in the top positions, it would be nice to see more battle.
Photo: Dorna
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