Marc Marquez: “I was considering going with the medium, but then I noticed that all of the Ducatis had the soft, and only two riders had the medium.”
It’s hard to say if Marc Marquez would have survived to win his maiden Gresini Ducati race if he hadn’t crashed out of the COTA MotoGP race on Sunday. To contain the rushing Maverick Vinales would have been no easy feat.
In any case, Repsol Honda’s seven-time Austin winner Marquez maintains that his tyre selection was a reflection of his mindset going into the race: a podium rather than a win. Pedro Acosta (GASGAS), a rookie rider, and Vinales (Aprilia), who finished first and second at the checkered flag, chose the medium rear tyre. Marquez clarified that he had to decide before the race whether to take a chance on the medium in an attempt to win or to go for a safer podium by selecting the same soft option as the other leading Ducatis.
“My true intention was to focus on the podium rather than the win,” declared Marquez, who had previously declared that he would “sign” for a rostrum after finishing second to Vinales in the Saturday Sprint with the soft. “Because I was considering going with the medium for a while, but I noticed that all of the Ducatis had the soft, and only two riders had the medium. Because I was faster than them [the other Ducatis], I responded, “Put the soft.” Thus, that decision [indicates] that I was considering the podium rather than the win.