Factory Ducati rider Marc Marquez says he made a grave error in the “easiest part” of the San Marino Grand Prix sprint, having crashed on the same lap he took the lead.
Despite having a relatively tough qualifying session and missing out on the front row, Marquez was immediately on the move in the race, streaking past Fabio Quartararo at the start before snatching second from his brother Alex Marquez at Turn 2.
For the first part of the race he continued to shadow polesitter Marco Bezzecchi, but when the latter made a mistake at Turn 14 on lap five, the championship leader sensed an opportunity and passed him at Turn 6 during the following tour.
However, just as it looked like another sprint victory was in the bag, Marquez lost the front-end of his Ducati at Turn 15 and retired from the race.
This brought an end to his streak of eight consecutive sprint wins stretching back to Aragon in June, and marked his first DNF in any race since the Americas Grand Prix.
Speaking afterwards, the six-time MotoGP champion offered an explanation for the incident and denied he was overriding the bike.
“Of course, in that corner, I was on the limit but I was not riding over my limit,” he said. “I was riding well. For that reason, I attacked [Bezzecchi] because I saw that I had a better pace on that lap.
“I did the most difficult thing and I made a mistake in the easiest part, that I forced too much. I went a bit wide at Turn 15, and [it was] a typical crash of Misano.”
Marquez has enjoyed an unbelievable run this year, having scored 10 grand prix wins and 14 sprint victories prior to Misano.
Once infamous for crashing too often on the Honda, the Spaniard has also cut down on errors this season, with the Spanish GP marking the last time he suffered such a fall in a sprint or a grand prix this year.
“Nobody is perfect, and in the end, I took a lot of risks during the sprint races this season, and it has been a success every time,” he said.
“One day is a day [where I was going to crash], and today was the day. Since Austria, one year ago I was not making any mistakes in the sprint, so it can happen, and today was the day. – and in the easiest moment. I say the easiest moment, it was not easy, but I did the most difficult [part], that was leading the race.
“But maybe I didn’t take care about the tyre temperature, [that it was] still not correct. It was too hot, because just a few corners ago I overtook Beccechi.”
With his closest rival Alex Marquez finishing only second in the sprint, Marc Marquez now has a chance of wrapping up his seventh premier class title as early as the Japanese Grand Prix at the end of the month.
As such, the older Marquez didn’t show any sign of frustration when appearing for his media duties after the sprint.
“I’m relaxed,” he said. “I mean, still 170 points. People are always talking about, ‘when will you close the championship?’. I will try to close as soon as possible, but the most important [thing] is to take it.”
Marquez also dismissed suggestions of a lapse in focus after taking the lead in the same manner he has done several times this season.
“Today I had the concentration in the correct way,” he said. “Just the first mistake of the sprint race. I mean, it can happen, but today I’m very happy because the title will be for the Marquez family. “
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