Marc Marquez may have lost the MotoGP championship lead to Jorge Martin in the Austrian Sprint, but the Gresini Ducati rider insists he achieved his primary goal: limiting the damage and staying in the fight at the front.
Starting from second on the grid, Marquez was immediately embroiled in a fierce battle with polesitter Martin. When Martin ran wide at Turn 1, Marquez seized the opportunity to dive down the inside at the Turn 2A-B chicane. However, the move cost him momentum, allowing Pedro Acosta to sneak past at the next corner. Marquez eventually finished second behind Martin, while Acosta crashed out of the lead, handing victory to Martin.
“I predicted it was not a good idea to attack in Turn 1, because they will just use the run-off area and then it's for nothing. So I tried to prepare the attack for Turn 2,” Marquez explained. “But the fact I attacked in Turn 2A meant I went very slow in Turn 2B, and then I braked too late in Turn 3, and I saw one bike [Acosta] and just he was faster than me.”
Although Marquez briefly reclaimed second from Martin, he chose not to defend aggressively when Martin repassed him at Turn 1 on lap eight. “It's normal, but in Turn 1 it's okay, because I used the run-off area. I heard a bike very close and with seven laps to go, so it was not necessary, or not smart to defend very hard,” he said. Elaborating on his decision, he added: “When you have the position [in a pass like that], you have the position. And it's like me [passing him] in Turn 2A. On the braking point, I was already very close to him. So you understand that one bike is close to you, and I was already prepared that somebody will arrive.”
Acosta’s late crash meant Martin extended his advantage over Marquez to three points, having taken the lead on a tiebreak after Misano. “But the target was clear, just try to finish behind Jorge. Because Pedro and Jorge were faster than me. What I tried to avoid was not having any bikes in between,” Marquez stated. He acknowledged that Acosta’s crash could hurt him in Valencia, but remained focused on his smart racing approach.
Marquez also revealed that he and Ducati are still struggling with the stiffer-construction rear tyre used in Austria. “We are struggling. We struggled a lot in Thailand, and we struggled again here, and we know that it's a different [tyre] casing. It's the same for everybody, and the tyres are working well, but we need to understand how to be better with that casing,” he concluded. With this result, Marquez remains optimistic for Sunday’s grand prix, where he will aim to bounce back and reclaim the championship lead.
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